WATCH OUT, CAYMAN: IT’S RENAULT’S MID-ENGINED ALPINE
One nightbo in the Lamr SV Aventadmoonster
SEPTEMBER 2015
PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS DRIVEN
Testing the rawest 911 on the UK’s best roads
740bhp V12 t zone gh enters the twili
VE I S U L C EX D ” s L r R a c O o W t n I’m i
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ISSUE 265 • SEPTEMBER 2015
With Chris Evans joining the TopGear programme team as the new host of TopGear, many of you (especially those not from the UK) may be wondering who on earth Chris is. Well, aside from the interview included in this issue, I thought I’d turn the reins over to BBC TopGear Editor-In-Chief Charlie Turner, who spent some time with Chris in advance of his arrival on Planet TG, Charlie sat in on Chris’s enormously popular Radio 2 breakfast show, and here’s what he had to say: “What became immediately clear was that, unlike most blokes, multitasking isn’t a problem for Chris. I watched as he simultaneously tuned, loaded and processed every element of the broadcast while somehow finding time – with the second-by- second countdown ticking away in the background – to review the papers and edit the many communications that fire into the show from every social media channel, with any downtime punctuated by another question from yours truly. What’s also abundantly clear is that Chris’s petrolhead genes run deep. His current and eclectic car collection speaks volumes, but his back catalogue of previously owned icons, including a McLaren F1 and Ferrari GTO, would leave most people’s petrolhead appetite sated in perpetuity. So with the new gaffer on board, the production team being hired and the ideas flowing, we’re looking for presenters. If you’ve spent years shouting “I could do better than that” at the TV on any given Sunday, now’s your chance. Send your 30-second clip to topgear@bbc.co.uk, and we’ll take a look. Terms and conditions apply, so have a read, get filming and good luck; the deadline for entries is 20 July.” If that’s not enough, we also have an issue packed with great content as we check out the Honda Odyssey (one for the family), pilot the slinky Jaguar XF, and give you an idea what it’s like to sit in the throne of the Audi R8. Meanwhile Ollie Marriage heads to Wales in the latest ultimate iteration of the performance Porsche 911, the GT3 RS. Sam Philip gets to grips with the 488 GTB as Ferrari goes Turbo, and Tom Ford wakes the neighbours and anyone within a five-mile radius of the New Forest in the Lamborghini Aventador SV. Elsewhere, we send our cultural attaché Stephen Dobie from Sunderland to Tokyo and let him loose in the gorgeous Honda S660, and the Volvo XC90 takes on its rivals. So, another incredible issue of TopGear is in your hands— I hope your mood is suitably celebratory. With the show rebooting, and the automotive industry cranking out a torrent of good, bad, and (occasionally) ugly products, you can count on us to keep watch, covering the latest news and the most exclusive whips on a (mostly) monthly basis. Enjoy the issue.
ADEL HABIB
EDITOR -IN–CHIEF
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18 FEATURES
88 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
110 Honda S660
96 Alpine Celebration
118 TopGear TV part 3
101 Ferrari 488 GTB
124 Lambo Aventador SV
Is the RS a track-day car with no road manners? Ollie Marriage heads to Wales to find out
Meet the modern-day successor to the French wheels of choice. Hon-he-hon-he-hor. Bon
OK, so it’s a Ferrari with a turbo. Get over it, it’s the future, so sign up or shut up
City boring cars boring are boring. Boring. Except in Japan, where city cars are verging on being an art form
Andy Wilman talks celebrities in the final installment of his History of TopGear TV
It’s got a wing the size of Exeter and enough power to light up all the houses there too. Yup, meet the SV
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132 McLaren 675LT
The 650S was a step change from the 12C. Now Woking has moved the game on again with the Long Tail
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26 Alfa Romeo Giulia
40 TG at the movies
28 BMW 7-Series
44 Bridgestone
30 Lotus 3-Eleven
48 James May’s almanac
34 Toyota HiLux
50 Off Road Zone
Alfa has big plans, starting with the Cloverleaf Giulia. A thing of beauty
The five things you absolutely, categorically must know about the 7
Take the 2-Eleven, make it faster and hey presto, the 3-Eleven is created
Toyota is riding high with the release of this rugged redesigned people’s truck
A month of amazing things to watch means a TopGear cinema special. Pass the popcorn
Gripping news from one of the most important companies to ever make shoes for your car
Spiky speed cameras, hammer and chisel libraries, and why our roads get closed
Find out how to get off the road and into adventure with the You Drive Desert Experience
Driven this month… Honda Odyssey J Jaguar XF GMC Terrain Audi R8 Hyundai Tucson Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S Bentley Continental GT Mazda MX-5 Toyota Yaris TRD Hyundai i30 Turbo Suzuki Vitara
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHARLIE TURNER
ASSOCIATE EDITOR TOM FORD MOTORING EDITOR OLIVER MARRIAGE MANAGING EDITOR ESTHER NEVE
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BBC TopGear Magazine is owned by BBC Worldwide and produced on its behalf by Immediate Media Company Limited. BBC Worldwide's profits are returned to the BBC and help fund new BBC programmes. BBC WORLDWIDE DIRECTOR OF PUBLISHING NICHOLAS BRETT HEAD OF PUBLISHING CHRIS KERWIN PUBLISHING COORDINATOR EVA ABRAMIK UK.Publishing@bbc.com www.bbcworldwide.com/uk--anz/ukpublishing.aspx
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T W E E TS & S T U F F
The next @BBC_TopGear should be in a country where it doesn’t rain every day.
@WAUKESLOSH @Effa_3732 Amazing Stig!
Dad’s flat has no internet yet. Thank God for @BBC_TopGear reruns on Dave!
@THEORANGEONE97
F RO M TO P G E A R .CO M
Video: Four FXXKs. An empty Imola race track. Much throttle. Lots of noise. Time to kill your speakers And look like… Harris Nageswaram
frz1998 I just found my new morning alarm noise. Then again, I won’t ever get out of bed to turn it off – I’ll just sit there listening all day. Wasketts
These cars have a heart and soul in their sound that F1 just can’t seem to accomplish… Tekoa Semeniuk
134bhp/litre out of a naturally aspirated V12? Woah! Unemployed_Northeastern
Ferrari should really enter an LMP1 car! Lawrence James
All I can say about this is YES. That car is perfect. Taylor
This is what F1 should sound like. Martin Schmiedmayr
I think I’m getting addicted to watching this. The noise from that V12 is just so fabulous.
Sounds amazing, but looks slow. Phil Lam
G O O N L I N E A N D S U B M I T YO U R P I C T U R E S
@luthercrop Can this feature? An African 6x6
Things to do this weekend: empty grandparents’ house, DVR catch-up, brainstorm scripts for @BBC_TopGear audition video.
@DIGITAL_VIX3N @BBC_TopGear until I pass out. Night everyone. @Fitzy__1986 Sat watching
@THE_IJORDAN Still can’t believe the Pope had an Enzo…
@KYLESWANSEA Dennis Batterink via email A pic from Supercar Sunday at the TT Circuit of Assen, The Netherlands
The Stig is now our scarecrow in Loddon, Norfolk Twins? @ElenaCrameri
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@RISPMM
THE BIG INTERVIEW
Chris
Evans
MEET YOUR NEW HOST OF TG AS HE TALKS FIRST CARS, FERRARIS AND THE FUTURE OF TOPGEAR WORDS: CHARLIE TURNER / PHOTOGRAPHY: ALEX HOWE
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“The question wasn’t ‘Why would you do it?’ but ‘Why wouldn’t you?’” CHRIS EVANS ON TAKING THE TG JOB
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hris Evans does not have a problem with multitasking. A point which becomes increasingly clear as I sit in the studio of his Radio 2 breakfast show and watch him simultaneously process myriad instructions from his production team, read edited snippets that fire in at an incomprehensible rate from every available multimedia channel and absorb the daily papers. He is also loading, fading and generally masterminding every aspect of the broadcast, with the constant countdown from one item on the playlist to the next clicking away portentously in the background. He’s also answering questions from me as the music plays, and doesn’t appear to be intellectually overloaded. At all. It’s… impressive. It’s also extremely organised creative chaos. Clearly, you have to work incredibly hard to make it all sound effortless. Still, if you want to chat to 11 million people for three hours every day, operate as the nation’s ‘human alarm clock’ and not have any embarrassing pauses, you’d better have a gameplan. And plans are one thing Evans seems to have in abundance. He’s been an enduring part of the British media for years and now – as you may have heard – he’s taking on perhaps the biggest TV job… In The World. What’s also crystal clear is that Chris Evans is a car person, and those petrolhead genes run deep. His current – and brilliantly eclectic – car collection includes a LaFerrari, an Aston DB5 Convertible, a Rolls-Royce Corniche, the last ever 328 GTS (presented to Nigel Mansell after the Brazilian GP), a VW T5 Camper Van (called Buzz), an original Daimler Dart police car and… Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Which is a conversation starter if ever I’ve heard one. His back catalogue of ownership includes a McLaren F1, three Ferrari California Spyders (one owned by the legendary James Coburn) and a hen’s tooth Ferrari 250 GTO, as well as a number of other highlights that’d leave most of our petrolhead addictions sated in perpetuity. So it probably makes sense to begin at the beginning. CHARLIE TURNER: Let’s talk about your love affair with cars. What started it? CHRIS EVANS: I always answer this question with Magnum PI and the Ferrari 308 GTS, but when I think back, it was things like Magnum, The New Avengers with the XJS, cop shows generally,
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definitely The Professionals. I thought the RS2000 in The Professionals was off-the-charts. So, actually, the answer is television. CT: And your first car? CE: My first car was bought by my mum. It was a Mini, registration number VJA 879K, in Blaze. It still exists, I tried to buy it back last year, but they started taking the mickey with the money. The second car I ever bought was a MkIII Triumph Spitfire, which was stunning and didn’t really work at all, but we fixed it and got it going. The third car I bought was an MGB roadster, which I couldn’t afford. I was a mobile DJ at the time and had massive speakers. Every other DJ had a van, but I didn’t – I had an MGB roadster. So I used to take six trips to go to the pubs, taking one speaker at a time, then the records, then the lightbox and so on. It didn’t matter, because what that meant was I got to drive my car with the roof down, so I didn’t care. I actually thought I had become addicted to cars later on in life, but if I think about it, I’ve always bought cars that affected my life in a negative way other than in my car world. I couldn’t afford them, they were impractical, they didn’t work properly, the insurance was too high, all that kind of stuff. CT: So what is it that makes cars special to you? CE: It’s the romance, sensing some of the things my heroes did: Steve McQueen, James Dean, Bodie and Doyle. The chic, the panache. I’m not into watches or clothes, I’m into cars. Last night, I got far too excited about five cars and that was without looking on the internet. An internet car session can roll into hours. CT: But do you think Magnum is responsible for your love affair with Ferrari? CE: I think so, I think that’s absolutely true, along with Gilles Villeneuve – No. 27 and all that, because they were red and all such cool cars and such cool guys. CT: You are an absolute Ferrari aficionado, but why have them in white? CE: Well, when you own your first Ferrari, you are in reverence of it because you think, “Oh my God it’s a Ferrari.” No, no, YOU’VE got to own it – it can’t own you. So, when I had the idea to create the ‘Magnificent Seven’ for Children in Need, the James Coburn Cali Spyder was black, and that’s the head of the snake, and the rest were the white body behind. I love John Lennon, the White Album, so went for that… also Ferraris just look stunning in white. People say “Oh, they shouldn’t be white.” Well, that’s because they haven’t looked at enough Ferraris. I struggle to appreciate any red ones nowadays other than the absolute classics. CT: What’s the one car decision you regret the most? CE: I don’t regret any of them, because they’re all lessons. That’s the best thing about mistakes, they’re the best lessons in the world. Mistakes teach you how not to do something, which is TOPGEARME.COM
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brilliant because you can’t buy that advice. You can pay for it, but you can’t buy it. The most money I’ve lost on a car is $7million – I bought the Coburn car for $12m and sold it for $5m because it had the wrong engine, which I didn’t know at the time because I hadn’t done my research properly. Other cars have brought me much joy, Fangio’s World Championshipwinning 860 Monza was a bit of a wow. Super, super good-looking chariot. CT: We get the keys to everything. What are you itching to drive? CE: The DB10, Bond’s new car, that’s what I’m itching to drive at the moment. But there’s so much good stuff around. Honestly, anything from Land Rover or Bentley I look forward to. I know they’re the bigger and the flashier cars, but I look at the masterful engineering of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood and think, “Yeah, I want a bit of that.” But then there’s smaller stuff, the independents, which are always interesting. I like the cars that have changed my mind on things like stop/start. Hybrid technology and where it’s all going fascinates me. Also, how far can new car design go when speed and power are now way past what is at all sensible? Cars are getting faster all the time, yet roads are getting busier and speed limits are coming down if anything, instead of up. It’s like the supercar manufacturers know something we don’t,
otherwise why would they still bother? The other great modern-day irony is F1 is considerably slower now than in its speedhappy heyday. I don’t get that at all, especially when it’s also much safer. Discuss. Then there’s the potential sacrilege of Bentley and their Bentayga, their SUV that threatens to outstrip the Range Rover for posh.
On the other hand, I don’t mind at all things like Honda bringing back the NSX. All aluminium from collar to cuffs back in the day and now as a super-complex AWD hybrid supercar. Yes, please, can’t wait. And as for Ford with their GT racing at Le Mans next year, 50 years after they won the race, and teeing up a classic Ferrari vs Ford battle, I think they are pretty much on the money with everything they’re doing at the moment. The unbelievably silly and pointless but brilliantly affordable Mustang in RHD for the first time ever and their continued dominance of the budget family cargo ship market. Plus they really have been very savvy in their loyalty to their hot-hatch/RS market. CT: All petrolheads have in their heads a three-car garage, which is in a constant state of flux. What’s yours? CE: My old 1960 250 SWB Ferrari California Spyder, the McLaren F1 that I never drove but NOT IN SILVER – yawn – and that first car, the Mini my mum took out a 500 quid loan to get me started with. CT: Why? CE: You don’t have to dissect a car (you can if you want), but it’s just a gut feeling. I think the Cali Spyder is the most beautiful car ever created. The McLaren is both modern and timeless, almost impossible to achieve and could no longer be produced due to all the hand-tying, creativitystunting European rules and regulations. And the Mini as it is the car that means the most to me. CT: So, TopGear. You said you “wouldn’t run for office”, but now you’re in the office. How did that happen? CE: I honestly didn’t think I would get the phone call – I was amazed that I did, to be honest. I ruled myself out because I didn’t want to be part of all the nonsense that was going on. But then the situation changed, and I wasn’t stepping on anybody’s graves or toes. I was actually in the middle of preparing for TFI Friday and I talked to Will and he said, “Why would you not do this?” And that’s the question. It wasn’t “Why would you do it?” but “Why wouldn’t you?” If I make television programmes for a living and love motor cars and love the biggest challenge in the world, why wouldn’t I do it? So, 20 minutes later I phoned back and said, “Yeah, I’ll do it.” CT: Is this the most challenging thing you’ve done? CE: This is, without doubt, the most challenging thing I have ever done in my career. When I took over Terry’s [Wogan – the previous Radio 2 host] show, people kept saying I had “big shoes to fill”, and they’re saying it again now. I don’t mean they’re wrong or they’re right, it’s just such a predictable thing to say – and, by the way, Jeremy is very tall, so they’re even bigger shoes…
“I don’t have time in my life for gimmicks, and TopGear doesn’t need them”
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CT: What do you think about that? CE: The same as I always think when a car manufacturer steps out of its/our comfort zone. Please don’t; we love you for what you do best. But I’m ALWAYS wrong. Diversification is the name of the game even for the likes of Porsche, Rolls, Ferrari and McLaren with its new baby boomer 540 and 570S. I hear Lamborghini fans are also about to be able to Lambo up the schoolrun with the Urus. I don’t know whether to scream, cry or just leave.
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CT: As a fan of the show, is there an element that you hold up as a benchmark of what you’re looking for? CE: Well, what I’ve done so far, which is what I always do when I’m coming up with new things, is not watch anything back. Having watched the show over the years, I have my memories. I’ve had to put those on hold, because we have to start from where we want to start. That doesn’t mean we have to start afresh at all, but we’ve got to say, “Right, what do we want to do; what do we want to achieve? Why do we want to achieve it? What would I want to see?” We start there. Once we’ve done that, we then have to put together the team. There’s a lot of talk about talent at the moment. Honestly, it’s not the furthest thing away from my mind, but it is quite distant compared to directors, producers, assistant producers, lighting and camera men, editors, production managers, production coordinators and runners. I have got to get that team, because, without the team, it doesn’t matter what presenters we get. CT: How quickly have you got to get that team in place? CE: It’s nearly in place. We’re so very close. CT: When do you want to start filming? CE: We have to start filming really soon, definitely within two months. CT: But you’ll need the presenters in place to do that? CE: Yeah. More importantly, we know what we want the production crew to do – editorial and location and studio – because we’ve written the show we want to make. CT: What about the search for a presenter? Is that a gimmick? CE: No. It can’t be, because, first of all, I do not have time in my life for gimmicks anymore, and TopGear doesn’t need gimmicks. The only reason I’m doing these auditions is because that’s how they found James May and Richard Hammond. We know from things that have gone on in the past, whether it’s Opportunity Knocks, New Faces or The Voice or X Factor, we know that there are some amazing people doing stuff in their bedrooms or in their garages. We’d be stupid not to find those people. You don’t know who you’re gonna find. You might find no one. And that’s also why it’s not a gimmick, because you’re not guaranteeing a place, because that would be a gimmick in itself and you might only be employing a person for the sake of it, so we’re not doing that. CT: So the ideas for a new series are already flowing, then? CE: We know that the car industry is prolific, that there are new cars coming out every week around the world – as I’ve mentioned, the raw material and the content is always going to be there. It’s served to you on a plate every week. Everybody has ideas, I’ve got cameramen phoning me up with 20 ideas, so, to be honest, ideas aren’t the issue. Like I said before, the issue is organisation. You’ve got to
be organised, you’ve got to get the right people in place, you’ve got to get your timetable and your timeline sorted out. And if you get all that sorted out, it’s not a problem. CT: Is it right you wrote the first show a few days before you announced you were taking the role? CE: I did a stream of consciousness before that. The stream of consciousness is about ideas and then you have a running order. Running order is about rhythm and windows, so ideas are the fun bit. Ideas are an away day at the pub or whatever. The nerdy bit is the running order, and we had to come up with the nerdy bit to find out what team we needed to employ. The thing about employing people is that you’ve got to know what they need to do before you can employ them. It was like that for the production team and will be the same for the presenters, because we’ve got a lot of talent to choose from. CT: And what in the show has to stay? CE: Nothing has to, but some things will. I can’t tell you what precisely. But it would be silly to throw the baby out with the bath water. CT: So you’ll continue with some elements of what went before, but reinvent around it? CE: Yes. I’ve done a lot of research on TopGear, which started in 1977 as a BBC Midlands show. It was a monthly regional show and then it got brought down to London. There have been 34 presenters before me, so it’s a bit like Dr Who – that’s one way of looking at it. But hopefully not Dr Who... CT: TopGear is part of the national debate, and what’s next is the subject of a lot of column inches. Do you look at that or just ignore it? CE: I can pretend I ignore it, but of course I can’t, because it’s such a massive thing. It’s impossible to ignore, and you’d be foolish to, because you have to accept everything. It’s like the serenity prayer, “Change the things you can change, accept the things you can’t, have the wisdom to know the difference.” CT: You have a big radio show, you’re writing a book, you doing a series of TFI this autumn… how are you going to fit it all in? CE: We’re talking about 18 hours of television. We just did three hours of radio; we’ll do another three tomorrow. It’s a television mentality that 18 hours is SO tough to do. No it’s not, it’s 18 hours! You’ve got to do it properly, you’ve got to do it thoroughly and with respect, you’ve got to do it with depth and quality and commitment and passion, but it’s only 18 hours. We’re not making War of the Worlds 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 here! When I start working on TopGear and stop doing The One Show and stop writing my book, I will be less busy than I have been this year. When I go abroad to make some films, when I get on those planes to go off to wherever we’re going, that’s the most downtime I’ll have had in five years. I can’t wait, to be honest.
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EDITED BY SAM PHILIP
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NEW CARS THIS MONTH
BIG THIS MONTH
Alfa Romeo Guilia Alfa’s spearhead for world domination? A 503bhp super-saloon TURN OVER TOPGEARME.COM
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Still want that BMW M3, then? First fruit of Alfa skunkworks is a peach BY PAUL HORRELL
We all want 503bhp, many tailpipes, 19s and downforce. But peer around the performance gewgaws, and a very handsome mainstream saloon lurks below
O
f all the things we know about this beautiful and heart-stoppingly fast car, the most convincing fact is apparently the most inglorious. The Giulia’s design and engineering haven’t been done in some historic yet high-tech corporate HQ, but in an abandoned Iveco trucks building on the edge of Modena. Bear with us. There, in semi-secret, 600 specially recruited engineers are free to do what’s right for Alfa alone, and on a big budget. No Fiat or Chrysler engineers lurk down the corridor to prod them into cheapskate parts-sharing. CEO Harald Wester calls it a skunkworks – they operate freely and far faster, he tells TopGear, than if they were part of the main corporate R&D machine. First fruit is the Giulia Quadrifoglio. A RWD twin-turbo V6-engined supersaloon. It packs 503bhp, a sophisticated adaptive suspension, carbon-ceramic brakes and positive downforce. At the back is a full torque-vectoring ECU-controlled differential. The roof, bonnet, propshaft and even seat frames are carbon fibre. The doors and wings are aluminium. Weight is evenly distributed front to rear and totals just 1,500kg, and so the 0–62mph is 3.9secs. Those skunks aren’t mucking about.
Wester says the engine is “Ferrari inspired”, related to the one Ferrari did for Maserati, but more powerful and using selective cylinder shutdown under light throttle to save fuel. He plays, at big volume, a sound file of the thing running through the revs, and the noise does all the right things. Of course, Giulias will come with many more engines than just the Quadrifoglio. Alfa is developing a 4cyl turbo in two sizes, the larger making 180–330bhp and the smaller one 120–180bhp (though the lowest-powered of them, we understand, might be for the Giulietta replacement, not the Giulia). There will also be a 400bhp version of the V6. The diesel 4cyl range will produce 120–220bhp, and a diesel V6 will do 250–350bhp, but, again, some of those diesels might not be for the Giulia. Wester tells me this is the platform for seven all-new Alfas, and that they’ll share the same all-aluminium multi-link rear suspension. Their front suspension has a virtual steering axis like the most sophisticated hot hatches (to quell torquesteer), but it’s part of a double-wishbone system for better handling. Many have optional all-wheel drive. Transmission is manual or dual-clutch paddle-shift, he says. I put to Wester the rumours that the platform is derived from the Maserati saloon. He retorts that the Alfa platform is “100 per cent new, body and suspension”. Anyway, this RWD V6 Giulia is a vast 300kg lighter than a comparable Ghibli. Sure, not all the new Alfas will get the carbon-fibre parts of the Quadrifoglio
(except the propshaft, which goes across the range, he says, because it gives a feeling of precision and cuts inertia for better economy). But all Alfas do get the aluminium body parts and an “aluminium composite and plastic” rear crossmember. You might be embarrassed if your boggo-spec Giulia were rocking the Quadrifoglio’s rear diffuser and active front splitter, and it won’t. But if you squint at these photos, you can see the basic body underneath is a most handsome thing. There’s an aggressive and very animate face, its trefoil air intakes a modernised version of what made the Fifties Giulietta Sprint so lovely. The side forms are simple and organic. It’s very Italian. Alfas will feel alive, says Wester – benchmarked against the best rivals, but not feeling like them. “In current premium cars, you’re cocooned – the steering is light, there’s little feedback from the road. It’s like you’re driving by wire.” Alfas will make you “part of the machine”, he says. “But not uncomfortable.” So the cabin is simple too, rather than a gizmo-fest. The controller for the menus and satnav, he claims, is “so simple, even an adult can use it”. We won’t see more of the Giulia until the Frankfurt show in September, and UK sales don’t start until a year after that. But all credit to Alfa for making a splash. Usually when a new car comes along, we see the boring diesel version first and the hot one later. But to get back on everyone’s radar, Alfa had to make a splash. This one did it.
ALFA’S BUSINESS PLAN FOR THE FUTURE By the end of 2018, Alfa plans on selling vehicles six times faster than now, through a new global dealer network. By then, there will be eight models. Except for a 4C-style specialist sportster, they’ll all use the Giulia’s platform, in different sizes. Even the next Giulietta will be RWD with 4WD options, and come as hatch and saloon. And there’s a bigger saloon above the Giulia. So that’s three saloons and a hatch. Because premium carmakers are toast without SUVs, Alfa will have two, Giulietta- and Giulia-sized. There’s a third mid-size vehicle. Wester won’t say, but as this is Alfa you can
assume a coupe. Estates aren’t a priority, he tells me, and the MiTo will die. Alfa Romeo has talked of revivals before. Once with cars derived from GM/Saab joint ventures, more than once with poshed-up Fiats. Up to 2013, bosses talked of creating a range using the current Giulietta platform plus adapted Dodges. Then they stopped and decided to do it properly. They’ve now committed £3.5 billion to developing these cars and equipping the plant. It’s a gamble, and they need to do everything right. But in Alfa’s past, endless underinvestment has always failed horribly. Fortune favours the brave.
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It’s the Lotus Elise among limos
Okay, it’s not draped in carbon like a Pagani, but BMW’s new flagship has a ‘carbon core’ and a 130kg weight loss against its predecessor. Carbon fibre is strategically used in the pillars to lower the car’s centre of gravity, increase stiffness and, of course, shed weight – a feat aided by aluminium suspension, brake and wheel carrier components. BMW claims the entry-level version weighs just 1,725kg. That’s i8 nous paying off, right there.
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THE
iDrive has gone touchy-feely
KNOWLEDGE
Yup, the love-it/loathe-it infotainment system has gained a touchscreen, but keeps the rotary dial and keypad. The idea is you’ll use the touchscreen for logical functions like pinch-to-zoom on maps and dialling phone numbers, but stick with physical controls for, say, scrolling through a playlist. We’ve had a sneaky go, and – credit where credit’s due – it works elegantly, or you can ignore it. Best get your driver some silk gloves.
THIS MONTH’S IMPORTANT NEWS, IN BITE-SIZED MORSELS
1 The best toys are up front. Most owners will sit here. Unfair?
D E E N U O Y S G 3 N I TH T U O B A W O N K O T S E I R E S 7 W E N E TH
Ford ups the hothatch power war
Back in February, Ford claimed its new ultimate Focus would have “over 316bhp”. Now we know how much “over” – it’s a 345bhp AWD monster. Which would be very impressive…
It’ll read your jazz hands
Gesture control has long been concept-car fodder – but the 7-Series brings it into showrooms. Rotating your finger to adjust stereo volume or tapping an imaginary button to start phonecalls is novel, but still a tad too unreliable to be a true gamechanger. Yet. In 10 years, though…
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Mercedes wins hothatch power war
…If AMG hadn’t decided to give the facelifted A45 a ridiculous 381bhp. Yeah, take that, RS3. Camshaft and piston tuning has unlocked the grunt. Where will it end? 800bhp Fiestas?
r de force u to h c te w e n s ’ uit — BMW s s s e in s u b a in d PC Worl
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BMW’s stubbornly confirmed to TG there’ll be no M Division rival to the Mercedes S63 AMG, Audi S8 or Jaguar XJR. Apparently “the values of the M Division cannot be reconciled with the luxury and size of this car”. Oh, but the X6 M is OK, right? Anyway, there’ll be a halfway-house M Performance version instead. There’s a 321bhp petrol-hybrid coming, but the big UK seller will remain the straight-six 730d bi-turbodiesel, good for a theoretical 62.8mpg.
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It’s got a virtual Parker
Not quite the full Lady Penelope chauffeur, but the 7-Series will apparently park itself obediently when instructed – without you being in the car. Arrive at your driveway, step out and the 7 uses its army of sensors and cameras to garage itself – and it’ll auto-retrieve itself the following morning when called via the smart key. Then there’s the intelligent cruise control, anti-crash braking, and a charging cubby that wirelessly juices iPhones. What’s the point of humans again?
Stretch marque All-new Mini Clubman definitely not an inflated hatch
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There’s still no M7
Stop press: it’s a Mini with room for actual adults in the back
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It’s almost time to say goodbye to the DB9
Sending Aston’s lovely GT out in style before next year’s replacement is this, the, erm, DB9 GT. The 6.0-litre V12 gains 30bhp and the GT rides on bespoke 20-inch alloys.
This is the new Audi A4. Apparently
Slipperiest in its class, nicks the TT’s virtual cockpit instruments and it’s 120kg lighter. But with all that cleverness hidden under history’s dullest redesign, will anyone notice?
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all the new Mini Clubman “just a stretched hatch” (which is exactly what the idiosyncratic old one was), and Mini gets awfully cross with you. Yes, this Mini wagon is a whopping 29cm longer than before – which liberates a massively useful amount of rear-seat space, and two proper rear doors too – but it’s also wider. Wider than the Countryman crossover, in fact, as Mini tackles the Golf and Focus head on by at last building a car you can fit adults in the back of. The massive swell comes courtesy of a platform pinched from BMW’s front-drive 2-Series MPV, along with
the shared engines already employed in the Mini hatch range. The long-roof hearse look is still a polarising one, granted, and the twin-hinged rear doors limit rear visibility and eat bootspace. But bigger dimensions suit the latest Mini’s more bulbous form, and the cabin is genuinely roomy. More mature feeling too, with a tall centre console and lots of grown-up tech. Petrol Cooper, Cooper S and a diesel version make up the range at launch, which starts at a chunky-looking £19,995. Still a hipster’s choice then, but this time it’ll swallow more fixie bikes.
...IT’S ANOTHER CRAZYPOWERFUL JUKE. UM... Meet Juke R version 2.0. If you thought the last GT-Rhearted Juke was a bit daft, this is an even more ballistic blow to your sense of humour. Power is up nearly 120bhp, the Nismo GT-R’s 597bhp AWD drivetrain shoehorned beneath an even more steroidal crossover body. A one-off, until completist supercar collectors send their blank cheques to Nissan HQ… TOPGEARME.COM
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Interior quality largely irrelevant. Just make sure it drives well, Pug
The 3-Eleven: the ultimate bathtub on wheels? Discuss
Sharpen your reflexes: it’s the Lotus 3-Eleven
Just like S the good old days?
450bhp flyweight is Hethel’s fastest, most powerful road car ever BY PAUL HORRELL
S
even minutes and 10 seconds. If that’s the answer, you can guess the question, because you are the sort of person who watches every fraction of your car’s speed on a track. Especially a certain hilly, lengthy, treacherous German one. And that’s the number Lotus is claiming, admittedly so far via its spookily accurate simulation software rather than an actual test, of the pre-limit Nürburgring Nordschleife. There’s also a fractionally heavier, fractionally slower road version – it’s the fastest road Lotus ever. Like the 2007 2-Eleven, the 3-Eleven is a stripped-out, ultralight, barely-legal bathtub on wheels that nibbles at the very extremities of what any normal person would define as a ‘car’. Both ‘road’ (but still trackable) and full-track versions have a louder 450bhp version of the Lotus-Toyota supercharged 3.5-litre V6. The two versions sit either side
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450bhp accessed via an unassuming steering wheel
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of 900kg. This means Veyron-troubling power-to-weight ratios and absolutely premier-league performance including 0–60 in “under 3.0secs”. It’s a manual ’box on the road car, sequential on the track one. The bare-bones but savagely beautiful body is shared by both. You can just see the care that’s gone into aerodynamics for cooling and anti-lift. Look at the venting behind the front wheels, the aero-shaping of the roll-bar cover, and the way the side scallops feed into the engine air intakes. The track is wider than the Exige’s thanks to longer front wishbones. The structure is also stiffer than the Lotus cars that have actual doors, because there are fixed bars in the sides. The racecar also has an FIA-compliant cage. To cover it all, the skin is made of a new type of lightweight injection-moulded glass-fibre composite, some 40 per cent lighter than conventional GRP. Both versions have a big, adjustable rear wing, but it’s even more aggressive in the race version, meaning a startling downforce number of 215kg at 150mph. Prices start at £82,000; the track variant is £115,000. Big money for a Lotus, but it’s a trusted name for driving machines: the first three months’ production was sold out on the morning it was unveiled. Total production is limited to 311 cars. Geddit?
The time has come for Peugeot GTIs to live up to their name
267bhp 308 GTI aims to revive the Peugeot hot-hatch magic BY VIJAY PAT TNI
ince the well-documented glory days of fast 205s and 306s, Peugeot’s GTI badge has spent too long in the doldrums. But is one of the most hallowed suffixes in hot-hatch history back from the brink? The 308 GTI suggests Peugeot might finally, finally have cooked up a genuine rival to the Megane RS, Focus ST and the rest of the hot-hatch big boys. Utilising some serious input from the knowledgeable types over at Peugeot Sport, the 308 GTI is lower and wider than the regular 308, and features a posh new suspension set-up with stiffer springs, aluminium wishbones and a semi-hollow anti-roll bar. Then there’s the engine, Peugeot turning to its 1.6-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder from the RCZ-R. Two hot
308s are on offer: the first, badged GTI 250, offers up 247bhp, and is good for a 0–62mph time of 6.2 seconds. The second, though, is better. It’s dubbed the GTI 270, and delivers, um, 267bhp (that’s 270 Frenchy metric horsepowers). It records a 0–62mph time of six seconds flat, suitably faster than the Golf GTI’s 6.5 seconds. There’s more serious intent, too. The 270 gets 380mm front brakes, mounted on aluminium hubs with four-piston calipers, along with a Torsen limited-slip diff. Both will hit a limited vmax of 155mph. There are new wheels. There’s a new grille, new spoilers and new sills. There’s the option of different paint colours for front and rear. We have no idea why. Prices start at £26,555 for the 250, and £28,155 for the 270. Can this reignite the magic of the old GTI heroes? Here’s hoping.
WATCH OUT, BMW. IT’S THE MERCEDES-BENZ GLC Not an homage to early Noughties novelty hip-hop act Goldie Lookin Chain, sadly, but Merc’s new rival to the BMW X3, and successor to the GLK SUV. Which we never got in Britain. Sat upon the new C-Class saloon platform, the GLC is 80kg lighter than the GLK, and comes with four powertrains at launch: 168bhp and 201bhp versions of Merc’s 2.2-litre diesel, a 208bhp four-pot petrol, and a 323bhp petrol-electric hybrid. Monster AMGs will inevitably follow. TOPGEARME.COM
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London Calling ARES and Streit Group team up with a new boutique in blighty BY K ARIM MAKKI
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very worry you can’t get a truly bespoke, one-of-a-kind whip in London? Well, if you’re lucky enough to grapple with such admirable problems, then this new showroom, collaboration between ARES atelier and Streit Group, has your back in more ways than one. ARES will make sure the car is the bomb, and Streit Group makes sure it’s bombproof, or as near to that as they come (not our expertise). This extension of the partnership between ARES and Streit Group to include the UK market signifies the overwhelming success of the collaboration so far. Back in December 2014 luxury automotive design house ARES announced the original partnership with STREIT Group giving them the rights to distribute ARES vehicles throughout the Middle East and Africa. As one of the world’s leading suppliers of armoured vehicles, STREIT Group has an extensive network throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa and with many Middle Eastern and Russian clients favouring London as their destination of choice, there was a strong business case in favour of opening a showroom in the nation’s
capital. The new leaseholders are expecting a very quick turnaround and the anticipated launch date of the new showroom is set for July 2015. The London launch will follow the eagerly awaited launch of the extensive Dubai showroom in June and precede the new Modena-based ARES production facility in late July. Commenting on the announcement, ARES Chairman Waleed Al Ghafari said: “Deciding to extend our relationship with STREIT Group was an easy decision to make. Already in the short months of our collaboration with them they have shown themselves to be very supportive partners, which has benefited both businesses considerably. Their expertise with armoured vehicles coupled with ARES craftsmanship and dedication to delivering the ultimate in bespoke products has definitely appealed to their and our existing client bases. Having been educated in the UK, I have a great affection for London so I’m really looking forward to our launch there and bringing the ARES experience to the UK automotive industry.” ARES Chief Executive Officer and
Founder Dany Bahar said: “I can’t believe how far we have come in such a short space of time. We only launched in May of last year and it’s been a whirlwind since then, controlled and considered but none the less the business has grown far faster than we had ever dared to hope. The sales resulting from our partnership with STREIT Group have kept us very busy indeed and it’s great working with such dynamic and supportive partners. “London is the home of many incredibly wealthy and discerning individuals who understand and appreciate the luxury automotive market, our move there demonstrates not only our strong belief in the appeal of our products, but also the strength of the market currently. Our atelier approach allows for our clients to immerse themselves in all the materials we work with and, under the careful guidance of our design team, they are fully involved in the design process. The new boutique in London will provide another great location to experience this unique opportunity.” Sounds good to us— fancy making a bulletproof McLaren for the Stig? We can trade for advertising.
“London is the home of many incredibly wealthy and discerning individuals who understand and appreciate the luxury automotive market.”
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High Time
Al-Futtaim Motors announces the new Toyota Hilux BY HASSANE BACHOUR
A
l-Futtaim Motors just announced the eighth generation of the world’s most popular commercial pickup truck, the mighty Toyota Hilux. The new car looks a bit more rough and ready, sports a new frame structure, and an improved interior. Along with its new look, the truck now enjoys 15% better fuel economy than the outgoing ride, enhanced deck usability and towing capacity for larger and higher payloads, and a redesigned suspension that Toyota says is both tougher and more reliable. Debuted in Japan in 1968, the Hilux is one of the most ubiquitous Toyota vehicles the world over, and as Al-Futtaim will tell you “has always been renowned for its toughness, durability and ability to perform under
extreme conditions and in the toughest terrains.” The 2016 Hilux features a six speed automatic transmissions that is coupled to a newly developed frame, making it tougher, more efficient, and more economical while boasting the lowest total cost of ownership in its segment. “The first Hilux was brought to the UAE forty years ago, and since then it has sold more than 150,000 units to date, becoming one of the most relied upon commercial vehicles in the country, and a major staple in the country’s construction firms, farms, oil fields and more. It has cemented itself as the best-selling commercial truck across the nation, spearheading the Light Commercial Vehicle market in the UAE,” said Jon Williams, Managing Director of Al-Futtaim Motors.
“The new car looks a bit more rough and ready, sports a new frame structure, and an improved interior.”
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7th Son of a Gun We check out the new 7 series at an exclusive AGMC first look BY K ARIM MAKKI
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e were chuffed when AGMC offered up a sneak peak at the new BMW 7 Series at a closed room event held at their Sheikh Zayed Showroom ahead of its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show. With its ‘carbon core’ body the new 7’s shell is reinforced by carbonfibre in several spots— making use of quite large swaths of the lightweight/strong stuff. By combining aluminium, very-highstrength steel and magnesium too the body is made 40kg lighter than the outgoing car. So, with the suspension and wheels working a tad less hard, and because BMW never stops engineering their cars to be more, er, ultimate-drivingmachine-y, chassis parts have shed mass as well, combining with the 130kg taken from the V8 750i to an impressive 200kg compared to a similarly equipped outgoing model. Outside it looks very much like BMW should— the kidney grilles are in effect, a
more prominent Hofmeister Kink design is evident, and well, it looks great, but not hugely differentiated from the outgoing car, despite being pretty much all new. Inside the ambient lighting is a cool touch, and the luxury rear seating is enough to make me want to let someone else drive once in while. Tech heads will be glad to know the new 7 is chock full of enough 4G and wifi that you could potentially just park in the Dubai Mall garage and call that your office (assuming you can get a signal from inside). The main screen is controlled by the iDrive knob, or by voice command, but now there’s touch sensitivity to the main screen, which is a big help for scrolling and/or zooming in or out on the nav. There’s also gestural control for certain infotainment commands, so we’re sure to see a bunch of BMW drivers flapping their hands about as they drive down the road— sure to be entertaining.The various screens are high def and quick to respond to input, so it will be interesting to do a side by each with Merc’s latest tech at some point. To sum up— the 7 series looks awesome in person and on paper, we’ll know more after we hear how Karim’s recent drive of the car in Portugal went, so stay tuned for next issue.
“Inside the ambient lighting is a cool touch, and the luxury rear seating is enough to make me want to let someone else drive once in while. ” 036
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STORIES FROM OUR WEIRD WORLD, WITH ADDED BITS FROM THE TELLY BOYS
EDITED BY DAN READ
“He had a big bullseye on his back” THE RACING LIFE OF PAUL NEWMAN TURN OVER DOWNLOAD RUFOOF APPS ON YOUR iPAD
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BRIDGESTONE p44
Gripping news from one of the most important companies to ever make shoes for your car
MAY’S PUB AMMO P48 Why roads get blocked and the cactus Gatso
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Find out how to get off the road and into adventure with tha You Drive Desert Experience
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A caravan? In TopGear ? Surely some mistake...
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WORDS: DAN READ
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IMAGE: INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
A NEW FILM CELEBRATES A DRIVER WHO NEARLY WON LE MANS. OH, AND APPEARED IN A FEW FILMS TOO...
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WINNING: THE RACING LIFE OF PAUL NEWMAN
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t would be wrong to remember Paul Newman as a movie star who dabbled in cars. In fact, he became a professional racing driver who dabbled in movies, and only half-jokingly threatened to burn any scripts that interfered with the race calendar. Yet if it weren’t for Hollywood, he might never have discovered his love of cars. It was only when filming Winning, the 1969 classic about the Indy 500, that he took some driver training in order to look more convincing behind the wheel. And that was it, he caught the racing bug. One of the most revered actors in American cinema suddenly had a new role, and it wasn’t long before the movies took a back seat. This is the subject of American comedian Adam Carolla’s new documentary: Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman. Partly a reference to the movie that started it all, and based on the book of the same name, it also tells the story of what happened next, of Newman’s rise from rookie hobbyist to a talented pro who would almost win Le Mans just 10 years later. Despite this, many underestimated – perhaps still do – just how good this guy was. Of course, he looked just as good in a car as he did in front of a camera, much like Steve McQueen. In fact, both men became motorsport pin-ups, though – despite popular conceptions – Newman was the more authentic, up there with the ‘real’ drivers who couldn’t give a monkey’s about some silver screen poster boy. That’s why Newman liked it so much. For him, racing was a million miles away from the plastic people of Hollywood, where he could pull on a helmet and forget the fame, even if others couldn’t. “He had a big bullseye on his back,” says his old team boss, Bob Sharp, “people wanted to beat him.” But he mucked in, proved himself where it mattered, and it wasn’t long before he had the sort of friendships he’d never find in Hollywood. “Newman was on Viagra before they even made Viagra,” says Willy T Ribbs – the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, thanks in part to Newman finding a team who’d give him a go. “He was one hard-dick brother.” Newman might have found refuge in racing, but the press was never far behind. At Le Mans in 1979,
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P L A N E T / TO P G E A R AT T H E M O V I E S LAUDA: THE UNTOLD STORY
“ Newman ran down three photographers in the way of his pit box”
Paul Leonard Newman, 1925–2008. Actor, director, entrepreneur, professional racing driver, team owner, ecological and social activist, philanthropist and all-round good bloke
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the paparazzi were literally crawling all over him – one climbed the wall of a château to access his bedroom window. This might explain why, during the race, Newman ran down three photographers who stood in the way of his pit box. But don’t forget, he came to racing late, aged 47, and had spent most his life becoming arguably the most recognised man in Hollywood – he was Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke and would be ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson in The Color of Money, for which he would be awarded one of several Oscars. In other words, he must have put as much work into learning his racing lines as those from his scripts. As he says himself in the film’s excellent archive footage: “[Racing] reminds me of a theatre. It has its audience, cast, drama, comedy and sometimes its tragedy too.” The documentary acknowledges all of that, with contributions from the people who knew him best. It’s cinematic, stylish and steers clear of weepy nostalgia, although it’s unavoidably moving in places, for reasons we won’t spoil here. It feels like a convincing tribute to a man who, deep down, really understood cars and car people. He was one of them. One of us. The one we all wanted to be. Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman is out now online: newmanracingfilm.com
FRESH FROM HIS HOLLYWOOD BIOPIC, OUTSPOKEN DRIVING GOD NIKI LAUDA GETS THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES TREATMENT
IMAGES: BRIAN NOONEY, DAN R BOYD, TIM MCKINNEY, RAY WALLENTHIN
Paul Newman and one of his many metal co-stars
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GRAND PIX
There’s no Hollywood gloss, but if you like F1 you probably won’t mind. Lauda: The Untold Story is available on DVD from 6 July
The man with the “unnatural face” on the big screen
HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED NIKI LAUDA STROKE A COW? Then fire up your DVD player and get ready, because that vision is coming your way in Lauda: The Untold Story – a new documentary that tells the, er, now-familiar story of Lauda’s life. In 2013 we had Hollywood’s version with Ron Howard’s Rush, but this one takes a far more biographical approach, going beyond the bits with James Hunt and the Nürburgring fireball. It pairs this with a history of safety in motorsport, and although the chronology is a mishmash, it’s still quite watchable. For the most part it’s a straightforward presentation featuring vox pops from earnest Austrians, often with English subtitles complete with comedy typos. There’s also plenty of archive footage, including some hide-behindthe-sofa scenes of the fiery accident in 1976, and some less harrowing stuff from F1’s golden days, which always looks good on telly. But it’s the interviews with Lauda himself that provide the most interesting moments. Some are contemporary; others are from the vaults, including one with a bored cow outside his Alpine home. Cow prop or no cow prop, here’s a man who weighs every word and overstates nothing. He also knows his mind and speaks it freely, and in a world of pre-programmed driver-speak, this old-school honesty is always welcome. Take his thoughts on the disaster that almost killed him. “I saw the crash as an occupational hazard,” he says. “The logical outcome was to carry on.” Or his recollections of the press reaction. “How do you feel about your unnatural face?” asked a German journalist shortly after the accident. “Why unnatural?” replied Lauda. “It’s just a piece of thigh in my face.” How does it stack up against other motorsport films? Well it’s not as emotional as Senna – sometimes it feels more like a museum-style info film – and it’s not as stylish as Rush. But it does add new detail, even if it’s hard to stomach. Did you know that Lauda did an interview with a Brazilian radio station while he was still smouldering in the circuit’s medical centre?
Lauda: The Untold Story is out on DVD from 6th July
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ADRENALINE
PLANET / BRIDGESTONE
P O TENT
BRIDGESTONE SHOWS OFF ITS NEW POTENZA ADRENALIN RE003 TYRES AT DUBAI AUTODROME
ridgestone Middle East and Africa has just launched its new POTENZA Adrenalin RE003 tyres, augmenting its sports tyre portfolio. At Dubai Autodrome Abdo Feghali, Bridgestone brand ambassador and professional rally driver, showed off the new grippers on the track— naturally the pro driver made it look easy, and the tyres impressive. Mr. Shinya Hisada, Director, Consumer Product Business – Bridgestone MEA certainly seemed pleased: “We’re happy to introduce the new Potenza Adrenalin RE003 tyres to the Gulf markets. During the process of developing the POTENZA Adrenalin RE003 tyre, we were eager to develop a tyre that would turn anyone into a sports driver, and we succeeded. We are
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WORDS: HASSANE BACHOUR / PHOTOGRAPHY: SUPPLIED
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“ Adrenalin concept tyres, provide unprecedented confidence on the road for drivers with appreciation for the precision handling and control on dry and wet conditions.” TOPGEARME.COM
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confident that the new product will be highly appreciated by sport drivers in this region and be welcomed by all the people with a passion for driving”, said Mr. Hisada of Bridgestone. The new Adrenalin RE003 tyres are hight tech shoes meant to enhance performance driving. According to Bridgestone, “Adrenalin concept tyres, provide unprecedented confidence on the road for drivers with appreciation for the precision handling and control on dry and wet conditions.” What’s not to like? “It was an absolute thrill to do the test runs together with the Bridgestone team and selected members from the public yesterday at Dubai Autodrome. The driving experience using POTENZA Adrenalin RE003 tyres is exhilarating for anyone with a passion for driving. Maximum control of the vehicle, a quick steering response and braking performance and handling stability are aspects which anyone with a passion for driving dreams of; for a safe and adrenaline filled performance on the road,” said rally pilot, Abdo Feghali.
“ We are confident that the new product will be highly appreciated by sport drivers in this region and be welcomed by all the people with a passion for driving”
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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BRIDGESTONE POTENZA ADRENALIN RE003 COMPOSITION FRAMEWORK DRY HANDLING
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WIDE CENTRE RIB Provides a rigid centre rib for precise handling and cornering performance.
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CURVED GROOVED-WALL REINFORCEMENT Using a curved groove wall results in strengthened lateral rigidity to offer precise cornering performance. CONNECTION BLOCK Shortened lug grooves increase the rigidity of the shoulder block taking handling stability to a new level for powerful traction in dry conditions.
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WET HANDLING
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TRPLE AND HALF GROOVE The combination of three main grooves and a sporty half groove optimises overall rigidity and quickens initial response the instant the steering wheel is turned.
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PULSE GROOVE The main groove uses wave-like design technology that has been proven in the development of motorsport tyres for wet conditions. This innovation has been adopted for better drainage and anti hydroplaning performance.
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DEFLECTORS Raised protrusions formed on the floor of the pulse groove improve drainage and help prevent hydroplaning.
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SILICA COMPOUND The silica compound rubber improves wethandling performance while maintaining exceptional dry-handling.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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D O N K E Y WO R K
A L L B AC K E D U P
The Highway Act 1835 prohibits horses, donkeys, pigs and cattle being driven along the pavement. It’s still in force today, and it’s the same law used to stop cyclists riding on the pavement and drivers mounting the kerb while parking. It’s also delaying trials of driverless pods, which are supposed to be undergoing tests in pedestrian areas of south-east England.
The main causes of lane closures on British roads
L AW O F AT T R AC T I O N 1 Among other things, male bowerbirds can flawlessly mimic the sound of a car alarm, and have been known to do vocal impressions of engines, chainsaws and camera shutters. If these mating calls worked for humans, I literally wouldn’t be able to leave my workshop.
C AC T- E Y E Drivers in the town of Paradise Valley, Arizona, are being monitored by cameras hidden in fake cactus plants. Despite promises that they’re only there to check licence plates against records of stolen cars, the cacti cams have become a prickly issue (geddit?), with some locals accusing the authorities of spying.
41%
14% Roadworks
8% 8%
PLANET / PUB AMMO
L AW O F AT T R AC T I O N 2 American petrochemical giant Sunoco has made an aftershave that smells of fuel, oil, tyres and exhaust fumes. Burnt Rubber Cologne, as it’s known, is also scented with just enough sweet and spicy notes to balance the other aromas. Presumably it can be used to negate the effects of point 1, above.
A H I R E P U R P OS E
A BANDOLIER OF TIDBITS TO KEEP FELLOW DRINKERS’ HEADS DOWN
$1 late fe e
IMAGES: GETTY
TO N G U E-T W I S T E R
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5% 3% 1.5% Police checks
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Strictly speaking, the term ‘trail braking’ refers to the technique of staying on the brakes into a turn, and then gradually releasing them.
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Traditional police-style roadcraft driving manuals always advocate getting all that braking, gearchanging and soiling-your-pants stuff over and done with while you’re still going in a straight line. Then you make the turn.
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However, there are obvious advantages to trail braking. You brake later, so go faster for longer on the straight bits. Braking during the turn will transfer weight forwards, which can help banish understeer and make for a tighter turn. What’s not to like?
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The sudden and inexplicable collision with the Armco, for starters. Transferring weight forward is all very well, but there’s only so much of it, and that means less at the back. So you’re potentially more likely to spin. Also, braking requires grip, because brakes can only be as good as your tyres. So if you’re using grip to brake, you have less for holding onto the road while you turn. It’s physics, so you don’t get owt for nowt, even outside of Yorkshire.
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On the track, trail braking (if you can master it) could turn you into a heroic helmsman. Meanwhile, people down the pub who claim to have been trail braking are probably talking old toot. What they mean is they weren’t paying attention, and there are two dead-straight skid marks on the approach to a bend somewhere, and another one in their trolleys.
Pedestrians
Burst tyres
Loose animals
In the time it takes to say its name at a normal speaking tempo, the Lamborghini Aventador LP570-4 Superveloce will have accelerated past 100mph from a standstill. Even if you say it really quickly, it’ll be past 60mph by the time you get the words out. SEPTEMBER 2015 ←
Collisions
0.9% PA R K A N D H I D E
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How to... trail brake
Breakdowns
Obstructions
The West Philly Tool Library, cunningly located in West Philadelphia, is just like any other library except that it loans out drills and spanners, not books. Locals can keep each tool for up to seven days, after which the late fee is $1 per day. On this basis my mate Colin owes me $1,825 for the ‘use’ (i.e. loss) of my 10mm Facom.
TOPGEAR TOP TIP
Built at a cost of $900m, the Estádio Nacional de Brasília – one of the venues for last year’s football World Cup – is now being used as a parking lot for buses. The local team, Brasília, attracts just 5,000 fans per game to the 72,000-seat stadium, so the owners must find other ways to make money from the spectacularly expensive facility for which there’s no real use.
0.2% Suicides
18.4% Others (including abandoned vehicles and objects thrown onto the road)
HAS JAMES EARNED A PINT FOR THIS TOP TIP? TOPGEARME.COM
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“You Drive
Desert Experience” DUBAI HAS ITS SHARE OF DESERT SAFARIS BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE THAT LETS YOU DRIVE YOURSELF. WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: TRAVIS BRUCE
PLANET / OFF ROAD ZONE
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friend of mine, with whom I travel regularly, invited me to spend a week with him in Dubai. I was like, “Dubai? That place where every other car is a Ferrari, the women wear Prada, and everyone
smokes Sheesha?” “Yes,” he said, “but there is this company called OffRoad-Zone that is doing something totally insane, and we are going to check it out.” Weeks later, we boarded an airplane and flew 8,331 miles--half-way around the globe--for 16 hours. I thought, This better be good…. After checking into our accommodations at the Burj Al Arab and calling the guys at OffRoadZone to make sure everything was a go for the following day, I decided to surf the web and see what I was getting myself into. I typed the words
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“OffRoad-Zone” into my search browser and was pretty impressed with the results. Their web site was first class and easy to navigate, and all the information about the company was easy to find. But I was looking for one thing and one thing only--information on their “You Drive Desert Experience.” I noticed they had a link to tripadvisor.com, so I thought I would see what others who had boldly gone before me had to say. What I found only encouraged my excitement: “Amazing desert tour with excellent new off-road Jeeps. Driving yourself makes this desert tour a great experience.” --Hengelo, The Netherlands “Yesterday we had an amazing day! The best Jeep Safari EVER!” --Sofie C “By the end of the day we were all driving on dunes we couldn’t have imaged before we set off.” --Millyp2000
One thing that stuck out in my mind was the absence of negative comments. Each reviewer awarded OffRoad-Zone a 5-star rating and raved about the experience. The reviews along with the provided pictures allowed my friend and me to begin to believe that our 16-hour flight was going to be worth it, though now I wondered if I would sleep at all tonight. Thankfully, jet lag made sure I got a good night’s sleep. Still, we were wide awake at 4:30 am, anticipating our noon experience with OffRoadZone. This was going to be the longest 7.5 hours of our lives. We spent the next several hours--that seemed like eternity--exploring the hotel, restaurant, and beach area, but our minds were consumed with what was to come. A moment happens in every adventure when the imagination meets the reality, when one is left with jubilation or disappointment, when the
money spent is weighed against the product supplied, and this, my friends, was the beginning of that moment. As we stood in the lobby waiting for the guys from OffRoad-Zone to greet us, we glanced outside and saw the Jeeps we would be driving for the day. You know that smile you get on your face when you know you just did something awesome? Yeah, that one. That smile never left our faces for the rest of the day. As I write this story, there it is just as big as it was then…but I digress…where was I? The Jeeps they supplied were all 2015 Wrangler Unlimited Sport models with SkyJacker 4” Lift Kits, Pro Comp Wheels, BFGoodrich Tires, Bushwacker Flares, Smittybilt Bumpers and winches, and the list goes on. After meeting our guide, we were instructed on all the events of the day as well as the TOPGEARME.COM
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Our day ended, too soon I might add, at a place called Fossil Rock (Jebel Maleihah) where, according to legend, millions of years ago the oceans covered most of Arabia and an abundance of marine fossils can now be found with just a little digging. The setting was a perfect ending to a more than perfect day as we watched the sun set over the Arabian desert. As far as the eyes could see, it was just dune after dune after dune, and we had made our way through it. At this point we realized that OffRoad-Zone had mastered the art of fun without sacrificing safety. From the moment we climbed into our Jeeps to the moment we reluctantly said goodbye to our new friends, we had experienced what can only be described as pure pleasure. If you ever find yourself in Dubai and you only have time to do one thing, OffRoad-Zone’s You Drive Desert Experience can’t be missed. It is insanely brilliant. TRAVIS BRUCE
techniques we would be learning and the things that were expected of us. One thing we were impressed with is their concern for our safety. Not only were the Jeeps equipped with all the cool accessories, but they also had generators, first aid kits, tow ropes, shackles, and a host of other safety gear for any occasion that may arise. After watching a short video on what to do and not do while driving in the desert, we were in the Jeeps and on our way. We made one stop for needed supplies and were in the desert within 45 minutes, learning the science behind tire deflation. We were then instructed how to engage the 4x4 and turn off the traction control. I couldn’t believe how my heart was racing. I’m a grown man. I’ve climbed mountains, swam with sharks in the oceans, and jumped out of airplanes. I had to tell myself, “This is just sand, man. Calm down!” What followed was a pure adrenalin rush and lots and lots of sand. One time, I was so excited as I was trying to maneuver over a huge dune and waiting for my guide’s instructions. I kept wondering why they were not coming; then I realized my finger was pressing the button on the walkie talkie. (We laughed for hours that night in the hotel room over that one.) As the day progressed and my confidence increased, I was able to relax and I started looking at what was all around me. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the desert. Majestic mountains of dirt, countless grains of sand creating dunes as far as my eyes could see, serene azure skies, and camels roaming the deserts freely. I had to remind myself to breathe.
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“AMAZING DESERT TOUR WITH EXCELLENT NEW OFF-ROAD JEEPS. DRIVING YOURSELF MAKES THIS DESERT TOUR A GREAT EXPERIENCE.”
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OUR CHOICE OF THIS MONTH’S TOP-SPEC STUFF WATC H E S
Time flies CHRISTOPHER WARD C8 P7350
DUB BOX The Dub Box is not a chopped-up campervan. It might look like the rear end of a classic Volkswagen bus, but it’s actually a proper, working caravan with a one-piece fibreglass shell on a modern chassis. It’s handmade in England, and the options list is pretty much infinite, with many different colours, cupboards, cookers, cabinets, sinks, sofas, beds, tables and pop-tops. In fact, the only standard bits are the wheels, tow bar and bodyshape (available in two sizes, including a ‘shortie’ version). At 750kg it’s also very light, meaning you can haul it with almost anything, including an original VW camper, so it becomes a rolling extension. Ordinarily TopGear would murder such a convoy with fire. Not this time. From £11,000; dub-box.com
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FUGOO TOUGH SPEAKER
CANDY LAB MO-TO CARS
EE BUZZARD 2
It’s a portable Bluetooth speaker made for some rough and tumble. Waterproof, mudproof, snowproof and shockproof, it could take a proper kicking in a backstreet garage while pumping out awful power ballads for 40 hours on end. £142; amazon.co.uk
Toy cars for grown-ups, carved from gnarly beechwood by even gnarlier whittlers with a fetish for classic American muscle. The simple silhouettes and real, ‘Ford-grade’ rubber tyres are the antidote to cheap, plastic alternatives. From $30; candylabtoys.com
A mobile broadband dongle-thingy made especially for cars. It plugs straight into the 12V supply so there’s no need to charge it before you go, and it fills your cabin with lots of lovely 4G-based WiFi, so the kids can stream TopGear on their tablets. From £20/month; shop.ee.co.uk
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It’s not unusual for watchmakers to put bits of other things in their creations, from fragments of F1 engines to specs of moondust and even fossilised dinosaur droppings. This one from Christopher Ward contains a piece of metal from ‘P7350’, the only remaining airworthy Spitfire from the Battle of Britain. It’s not the first time a slice of old warbird has found its way into a watch – Bremont did the same thing with the EP120 – though this particular plane has a properly spiffing history. James May will also notice the dial’s resemblance to the Smith MkII A clock found in the P7’s cockpit, and watch fetishists will appreciate the hand-wound movement, certified by the Swiss authority that approves the world’s toughest, most accurate calibres. It might cost the same as a second-hand hatchback, but in watch terms it’s an absolute bargain. £3,495; christopherward.co.uk
AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK CONCEPT LAPTIMER In 2010, Audemars Piguet was tasked by Michael Schumacher with making this, the first mechanical chrono capable of recording multiple lap times. Most proceeds go to the ICM Brain & Spine Institute. £150,000; audemarspiguet.com
CASIO EDIFICE EQB-510D-1AER The solar-powered Edifice range has always packed many gizmos – alarms, multiple timezones, etc – controlled by a complex sequence of button pushing. This one fixes that by linking to an app, from which you control all the functions. £300; casioonline.co.uk
HANHART PRIMUS SURVIVOR PILOT Hanharts were among Steve McQueen’s favourites. This one features the company’s distinctive red pusher, originally designed to stop pilots from unintentionally resetting the chrono. £3,050; pageandcooper.com
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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EDITED BY LIAM NELSON
THE CARS THAT MATTER. DRIVEN, TESTED AND RATED THE TOPGEAR WAY
DRIVE OF THE MONTH
HONDA ODYSSEY J The Odyssey J is no Oddity TURN OVER
DOWNLOAD RUFOOF ON YOUR iPAD AND HAVE A FREE PREVIEW ISSUE TODAY.
p62 JACUAR XF
The big cat’s 5 Series could-be is going after zee Germans with claws and fangs out
p80
p81
BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT MAZDA MX-5 Continental GT gets more power but not much else changes
What difference does an extra 500cc make?
p86 HYUNDAI i30
It’s got a turbo and it wants you to know it
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H O N DA O DYS S E Y J
Calling You Home
A slimmed down Odyssey that’s sure to steer clear of the Sirens BY HASSANE BACHOUR
ll you need to know about the Honda Odyssey J, you can learn from its namesake, Odysseus of Homer’s epic poem about a journey that kept one man too long away from his rightful home: “You yellow dogs, you thought I’d never make it home from the land of Troy. You took my house to plunder, twisted my maids to serve you. You dared call for my wife while I was still alive. Contempt was all you had… Your last hour has come. You die in blood.” You see, a man (or woman’s) home is an inviolable space— a physical manifestation of the family contract and, thusly, not something you mess with. Same goes for the family car, an extension of the familial manse— natch. Right— so what is a Honda Honda Odyssey J, anyway? Basically, it’s a bantam version of the full size Odyssey that, up until now, was sold exclusively in Japan. See, we’re just that special here in the Middle East— Honda wants to send there, er, exclusive (and smaller) family whip here. Hmm, could have something to do changes petrol prices in the UAE, but we’re not privy to such high level machinations. Anyway, the O.J. (as we’ve dubbed it) is now it’s available in the Middle East as a
A
“If you’re looking for a family truckster for your fab crew, the O.J. might not be the most blinged out option, but it packs a lot of comfort in for the money and it will hold a good chunk of peeps.” 058
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largish minivan with three rows of seats for six people. Since one of the preeminent activities you’re likely to undertake in this van is to sit there trying to remain patient with you brood, it’s a good job the front captain’s chairs enjoy individual arm rests and are suitably comfortable — nothing makes Mom and Dad cross faster than a stiff neck or a pain in the posterior. On the sides O.J. rocks one-touch electric sliding rear doors, which makes it all that easier to close up for the night when you’ve got a sleeping babe under each arm and, frankly, just want to get the rig rats in their beds so you can enjoy some hard earned R&R. See, O.J. has your back— it’s like Johnny Cocharan to your, er, never mind. There’s no electric door for the luggage compartment, which some potential buyers might bristle at— but then, Honda knows your most precious cargo doesn’t ride in the back. The interior of this ride won’t blow the Armani socks off your feet (assuming you wear socks, which is a toss up in our region, I know), but it’s suitably well appointed and comfortable. O.J.’s spartan centre console eschews buttons and dials on favour of capacitive touch (which will either excite or repel you, depending on your disposition towards new fangled
SNAPSHOT
IN DETAIL
With the top of the line models, you get upgraded to the sporty 17 inchers
Odyssey J is blinged out with shiny chrome, LED lights and daytime running lamps
Beneath that chrome stripe, there’s a back up camera for those tight spots
technology.) The cabin is bathed in leather, with soft touch plastics where body meets car, and additional trim elements that look (sorta) like wood. There are also extendable ottomans in the second row, which is nice for long drives and can be conveniently adjusted for different arrangements of people and things. On the whole, the O.J. represents a modestly luxurious space to inhabit unless, of course, you’re relegated to the third row seat, with its tight quarters (not unlike Odysseus on the Island of Ogygia). Still, you can put two full size humans back there if need be. Instead of the conventional 60:40 split in full size Odyssey, O.J.’s third-row seats accommodate a 40:20:40 split, which is more flexible despite gobbling up a good chuck of the boot space. The van comes standard with a 173bhp, 225Nm 2.4-litre four-pot that will be familiar from the well-loved Accord saloon. That said, Accordistas might not approve of the new CVT gearbox, which strains at the bulkier frame of the O.J. when you open the throttle. Also, anyone who loves cars knows that CVTs sound like a cat being tortured, which come to think of it, is what the cats in my neighbourhood sound like all the time.
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Anyway, like Odysseus himself, this car loves smooth sailing— putting the km’s at its backside is what this car is all about and it is at its best out on the open highway, preferably not with a speeding Land Cruiser on your tail, lights flashing in rage at your lack of a V6. The steering is sharp and properly weighted for the task at hand— when you’re parking in some overheated parking structure beneath your neighbourhood mall, it’s light an accommodating. Out on the road it has appropriate weight when you get up to speed. Feedback is hardly revolutionary, but it’s actually not bad either. If I have reservations about minivans in general, it’s that they tend to look a bit like
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LIFE INSIDE
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Strong ergonomics— everything you need is within reach of the steering wheel
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The O.J. offers more hauling capacity than most crossovers, but won’t win any awards for sportiness. Still, it’s a pretty well appointed and good-looking ride— for a minivan
8/10
loaves of bread flying down the road. Honda has done a good job improving the aesthetic though, and O.J. fronts a liberally chromed-up radiator grille and blinding LED headlights and daytime running lamps that ensure a modern exterior. The car drops big brother’s lightening-inspired belt, replacing it with a new body kit that gives this family car just a soupcon more swagger. If you’re looking for a family truckster for your fab crew, the O.J. might not be the most blinged out option, but it packs a lot of comfort in for the money and it will hold a good chunk of peeps. Sure, it’s not going to win any races, but should you be competing when you’ve got tiny VIPs in tow? Surely not.
“All you need to know about the Honda Odyssey J, you can learn from its namesake, Odysseus of Homer’s epic poem about a journey that kept one man too long away from his rightful home.”
The main screen is hard to read in direct sunlight— or with shades on Besides leather, Honda adds faux wood veneers and chrome inserts to luxe up the cab USB and HDMI ports help bring the mini-van into the future Plant your duff here— extremely comfy seats are great for long and short trips
SPECS
060
VERDICT
2.4-litre four-cyl, CVT Transmission, FWD, 173bhp @ 6,200rpm, 225Nm @ 4,000rpm,
38.7mpg, 170g/km CO2
0–100kph in N/A secs,N/A Kph max
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1847kg AED 119,900
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ooking to kill time in gorgeous Pamplona, Spain— perhaps a They 500 km culminating in laps at Navarra circuit sounds good? We thought so too. What better way to celebrate and/ or interrogate the new Jaguar FX? As per the spec minions at Jag, this car offers best in class interior at the behest of JLR’s novel aluminium-leaning architecture. The car sheds 190kg over its antecedent, increasing torsional stiffness by the same stroke. Granted, it’s not an apples to apples comparo, as the new car is 7.0mm shorter and 3.0mm lower than the outgoing XF, while boasting 51mm longer wheelbase that, according to Jag, provides more rear seat space with more legroom, kneeroom and headroom than any competitor in the segment. With JLR chuffed about its innovative Ingenium family of four-cylinder engines, it’s no surprise that the Coventry based carmaker is eager to point out the cars improved efficiency. If you read our review of the smaller XE, this will be a familiar theme. The four-banger will do 300bhp, or if you’re feeling more ambitious Jag’s 3.0-litre supercharged V6 is good for 380bhp with their eight-speed automatic
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JAG UA R X F
Thunder Kitty Jag’s new XF is more efficient and better than ever BY SID SAIGAL
box. The ZF-sourced 8-speed automatic transmission will make you faster, have no doubt, as this impressive bit of tech all but obsoletes its own paddles, except perhaps when you just have to push it all the way to redline. With the V6, peak torque is available at 4,500rpm and peak power hits up around 5,500rpm. That means you’re in for a serenade when you pour it on, and this kitty purrs properly, especially in sport mode. The car has plenty of push, and the power supply is linear and vital throughout the gears. The supercharged V6 makes quite a good first impression— it’s quick, responsive and pairs well with this sporty saloon. We’d hazard to declare that it’s actually an improvement on the old 5.0-litre V8. With it’s largely aluminium structure, utilizing 75 percent of the light stuff to achieve (very nearly) 50:50 front-to-rear weight distribution. You can option their adaptive suspension system, which sets the dampers dynamically along the spectrum of comfort and sportiness. Jaguar Configurable Dynamics, which was introduced with the mighty F-type, tuning the chassis, steering, engine and transmission to the driver’s pleasure. Steering is propped up by a new fully
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IN DETAIL
19” alloys are always a welcome sight on any whip
Supercharged 3-litre V6, better than the old V8
LED illuminations, welcome to the future baby!
electric, power-assisted setup that offers a variety of driving assistance functions, improved efficiency, and the ability to irritate luddite purists. The tech package is beefed up as well, and includes something called All Surface Progress, which is a sort of traction control designed for low speed cruising, maintaining momentum on any surface. It seems like a relative of Hill Descent mode in the Land/Range Rover stuff, and will be a balm on the soul of any former Teutonic saloon owners who ever got stuck in an inch of wet snow. On the sand— that might be another story. This car is meant to be Jag’s 5-Series slayer— an appealing contemporary alternative to the dominating Teutonic execu-sled. Like that storied German car, the XF does a good job being all things to all drivers: the rear-drive chassis is well balanced, the steering has decent feel and the suspension’s ability to mitigate a rutted Sharjah road without getting too aggressive is very pleasing. The ride might be a tad rigid, but it’s more than acceptable overall. The interior is on the cool, sophisticated end of the spectrum— it’s not flashy, or all that colourful, but it’s also quite easy on the eyes. The cabin ties in nicely with the current litter of Jags, and
“This car is meant to be Jag’s 5-Series slayer— an appealing contemporary alternative to the dominating Teutonic execu-sled.”
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comes packed with new features like the new Connected Car mulit-media system, an eight-inch hi-def touchscreen with updated mobile syncing capabilities, in-car mobile wi-fi, voice control, optional head-up display and much more. The XF makes you feel like driving the car is an event— the vents turn to open when you fire up the car, the gear selector ascends from the dash to meet your grip— wave your finger in front of the glovebox sensor and it opens to reveal your treasures; this is a car that wants to make you feel special behind the wheel. And sure, there could be more headroom in the rear seats, but even if you’re a tall person stuffed back there you’ll notice the interior
fit and finish is first rate, with none of the clapped together quality that plagued the Ford era cars. Jaguar hadn’t been earning a lot of points for its old infotainment system, so nerds everywhere rejoiced when the InControl Touch Pro system rolled out with its 10.2in touchscreen. The system features Dual View ala Range Rover, which means your passenger can watch Survivor on their side without subjecting you to a bunch of sweaty people in their bathing suits (although you may still wish to vote your neighbour out of the car.) Also borrowing a page from Rangey, the digital instrument cluster is a healthy 12.3in of, er, clustering.
VERDICT All the swagger and style of a British luxury car, but with the modern handling, efficiency, and power you’ve come to expect form any major player in this highly contested segment.
1 Like any Jag, this car is meant to balance luxury with drivers appeal, so the XF manages to both soothe or titillate, depending on your mood. It’s quite enough for long commutes, and very stable at speed, but there’s excitement there when you want it. And yes, this is a worthy rival for the 5 series, and the many other excellent cars in the consideration set. The XF starts near the top of the pricing pyramid, but it delivers quite a lot on its value proposition. So the real question is, could a luxury car buyer fall head over heels with the XF? Because that’s the kind of emotion that should be requisite at the price point. Our answer? Love is in the air, baby— love is in the air.
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8/10 “Jaguar hadn’t been earning a lot of points for its old infotainment system, so nerds everywhere rejoiced when the InControl Touch Pro system rolled out with its 10.2in touchscreen.”
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3.0-litre V6 supercharged, Eight-speed auto, RWD, 340bhp @ 6,500rpm, 450Nm @ 4,500rpm,
9.4 l/100km, 224g/km CO2
Paddle shifters, put the 8-speed to the test with high marks Meridian sound system available, sounds great to us High quality leather on snug, sport ready seats Bluetooth connectivity, because you’ll need your hands freee At your fingertips, 10.2” colour display touch screen
0–100kph in 5.3secs, 250kph max
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1,880kg
SEPTEMBER 2015
AED
169,000
065
hevy, GMC, Cadillac — same, different, don’t care? I’m guessing you do care, or you wouldn’t be reading this. And sure, when you’re a car-making behemoth like General Motors, it only makes sense to share platforms and segment to fit the market. So when we took possession of the Terrain, the first order of business was to figure out where it fits in the product mix. For starters, it’s definitely not a Caddy— for anything approaching that (sorta, barely) look to the Acadia, which is a more deluxe GMC. Instead the Terrain is a bit more utilitarian, but without sacrificing a lot of nice GMC touches that make GM’s middle child both appealing and, sometimes, harder to understand. First thing first, it’s best to actually sit in a car before beginning to review it. In the well-appointed Terrain I was able to dial the leather-clad seat in exactly the way I like it, with plenty of room for a nap should the occasion arrive… note that I don’t generally drive in the supine position. This car helps cash the checks that GM has been writing in its PR since bankruptcy, delivering improved interiors that are more premium in both feel and
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GMC TERRAIN
New Terrain
The Popular GMC SUV gets a refresh for 2016 BY ADEL HABIB
aesthetic. Not only does the Terrain offer a cushy cabin, it also has room for seven adults, although anyone over 180cm tall probably won’t want to sit in the rear of the car. One the whole, the cars capacity is pretty impressive, considering that doesn’t feel huge going down the road. Ride and handling are better than ever, thanks to rebound springs in the front struts to increase roll control, and shock valves for low-velocity control, smoothing out the ride at lower speeds. With the optional all-wheel-drive system, the Terrain actively manages torque distribution between the front and rear axles, analyzing wheel speed, throttle and surface conditions to apply torque to the wheels that have the best traction. This successful crossover is basically the same as the Chevy Equinox under the bonnet, delivering 301 horsepower and 369 Nm of torque with its 3.6L V-6 and dual exhaust. I found the throttle response to be timid in the Terrain, but with some adjustment to your footwork, the car delivers. An added benefit of its throttle feel is that it helps keep fuel consumption under control. The SUV also harnesses direct injection technology and continuously variable valve timing to
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IN DETAIL
Inside Style. GMC interiors hit their stride
IntelliLink. CUE’s cousin crushes it
Cupholders some things don’t need to change
further improve fuel efficiency. The Terrain has a 6.5-inch touch screen with blue tooth connectivity to smart phone apps, including s cool streaming audio app called Stitcher—use it to check out Radio Lab and the Top Gear podcast. It also includes an AM/FM tuner, CD player with MP3 playback, auxiliary and USB inputs and standard with rear-view back up cameras, a utility I’ve personally come to love. The great thing about these vehicles is that they offer great value, with a level of refinement that is helping buoy GM’s come back after a few difficult years. For two cars that share quite a lot of DNA, they’re ultimately able to foster completely separate identities, to the extent that different buyers will likely prefer one to the other— after all, it’s good to have choice. The GMC feels a bit more like a junior Cadillac, while the Terrain evinces an aesthetic that’s a little more in line with the Toyota Highlander. Outside, the biggest changes to the new Terrain are on the nose— literally. The top end of the enormous grille lays in a tad deeper, and the copious quantity of chrome now extends further down the façade than before. GMC has added LED daytime running lights; more chrome on
PHOTOS: MALEK FAYOUMI
“Built off GM’s Theta platform, this SUV is a popular seller for GMC because it affords loads of space, adaptability, and comforts.”
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“This car helps cash the checks that GM has been writing in its PR since bankruptcy, delivering improved interiors that are more premium in both feel and aesthetic.” 1
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LIFE INSIDE
the bumpers (are you detecting a trend?) and a bump in the bonnet that suggests a larger power plant than is actually revealed by opening the lid. Available in four trim levels: SL, SLE, SLT, and Denali— the Terrain has something for everyone and, at least in the US, it’s offerings apparently appeal to a largely female base of buyers, which we would not have guessed. The Denali gets not just more tech on the inside, it’s design is further accentuated by premium flourishes like a bespoke grille, 19-inch wheels, and taillights with, you guessed it, more chrome than a Google laptop. In terms of how the car is built, the biggest distinctions are cosmetic/infotainment oriented, but the Denali does get dual-flow
SPECS
068
dampers. In the latest model year some features that were exclusive to the top trim Denali have trickled down stream. Power front passenger seats, blind spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert—can now be optioned with the SLT. GM’s OnStar with 4G LTE is available, giving you a wireless hotspot for up to seven devices except, er, not in our region. Oh well. Built off GM’s Theta platform, this SUV is a popular seller for GMC because it affords loads of space, adaptability, and comforts. If you have the heart and soul of a Midwestern soccer mom, you’re probably a straight talking, but patient and lovely person. Also, you might want to take a look at this car.
3.6L V-6, 301 hp, 369 Nm, 16/23 mpg, 9.4 l/100km, N/Ag/km CO2
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VERDICT GMC Terrain is a popular choice— luckily, it’s one that continues to improve and the 2016 is no exception
Electronic Steering smooth and responsive, like the car itself Info Display- wait, how far did I drive on that trip? IntelliLink connect up to ten phones via blue tooth and conference yourself in
Full Leather Option smells like success, feels good too His and Hers, because commuters need caffeine
8/10
0–100kph in 605secs, 190kph max
N/A kg
110,000 TOPGEARME.COM
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“You have to concentrate if you want to keep the engine in its most frantic band”
AU D I R 8
Faster, sharper, better. GR8 Reworked R8 is better in every way
realise the Daily Mail and other self-appointed guardians of the nation’s moral outlook don’t like the idea, but the ‘scandal’ of ‘satnav racing’ is simply what we all do, isn’t it? Tap in the destination, note the ETA, and it’s only human to hope to be there before then. That’s not a ‘lethal race’, it’s just avoiding the impoliteness of unpunctuality. It’s no more scandalous than hurrying to eat an ice cream before it melts down your wrist. Even so, my distance-over-time trace in Audi’s new supercar this morning was a little extreme. It
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had taken a while to get a set of photos that do justice to the R8’s deceptively epic form. Then we had a plane to catch. I keyed the airport into the satnav. The time it calculated we needed was exactly twice the time we had available. Yet we arrived when we needed to, and it didn’t even feel like a rush. There’s an awful lot that 602bhp and quattro can do for you. Yes, the roads were dry, so in theory two-wheel drive would have been fine, but I just love the sense of security the R8’s arrangement brings. Even if the Mail wouldn’t approve, I was actually being prudent. I’d go into the many, many bends
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THE RIVAL
PORSCHE 911 TURBO S
Also crazy rapid – and more accessibly so. But does it have the sense of occasion?
with due caution. Only at the instant I could see that the way ahead was clear would I let that marvellous engine sing its heart out, feel the tyres key into the surface, and be away down the road like teleportation. The new R8 is all-round sharper and more alert than the old one, a car that was, let’s be fair, hardly soggy. These are no mere tweaks. The whole tub and body structure is new. It still has a largely aluminium spaceframe and all-aluminium panels. But the whole lower central section of the tub, the part you sit in including sills, lower B-posts and bulkhead, are now made
of carbon fibre. Stiffer, lighter, better. That section will really help when making the convertible. The 1,555kg kerbweight is extremely lean when you factor in the 10 cylinders and four driven wheels. As for engines, well, the V8 has gone, at least for the moment. The old car launched as a V8, but every time Audi added more cylinders or power (first the V10, then the V10 Plus) they took the lion’s share of sales. So this time around it’s just the 5.2-litre V10, with 533bhp, and a Plus version with 602bhp. The Plus also gets firmer suspension and shorter ratios for the upper gears for even more venomous acceleration.
The critical flag to identify the Plus version is the fixed carbon-fibre rear wing, rather than a more modest hideaway one. This engine really is a rare treasure. Download its furious voice and set it as your phone’s alarm tone – a literal wake-up call to those who say turbocharged engines can sound great. They can’t, not compared with natural aspiration and multiple pistons moving up and down a hectic 8,700 times a minute, at which point they’re hitting 60mph in the bores. Absent any forced aspiration, the R8 engine lacks the easy disdain of a highboost mid-rev punch. While you’ll often
BY PAUL HORRELL
Attention, Audi spotters: Plus has the fixed rear wing
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Engine is caged, its 602bhp longs to be set free...
be stroking a turbocharged supercar along pretty briskly using only 3,000–4,000rpm, in the R8 you must take up residence in the fives. But that ain’t the half of it. Somewhere between 6,000 and 6,500, something magical happens, a sudden quickening of its pulse, a crazed resolve to aim ever upward until the clock strikes red at 8,700. And throughout all that, the response to the right pedal has that gorgeously exact and instantaneous quality you just never get with a turbo motor. Compared with the last R8, the engine now gains an additional, indirect injection system to help low-load economy and cleanliness. At high revs it’s the direct injectors that do most of the work, as before. That stops knock and keeps the pistons cool. Just as well, as the compression ratio has been squeezed to an even more extreme 12.7 to one. It’s dry-sumped as before, so the crankshaft is down at wheel hub level, which keeps things nice and flat in corners. The sound really does have echoes of the old pre-’06 V10 grand prix era –a tingling scream underlain with a sexy lower-register huskiness. Geek alert: it stems from the fact that corresponding pairs of pistons from opposite banks share a crankpin (it makes the crankshaft stronger). So the firing intervals are uneven, alternatively 90 degrees and 54 degrees. So you’ve got to concentrate if you want to keep the engine in its most frantic band. To do that, you’ve an ally in the gearbox, a
Sideblades are now available in many colours. Choose yours wisely
LIFE INSIDE
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seven-speed twin-clutch with uprated software. It’s now eyeblink-rapid and supernaturally smooth, with tiny latency after you pull the paddle. And yet the ’box also manages to be extremely smooth in Comfort or Auto mode, burbling blamelessly through town. The chassis matches the powertrain. It’s more alert than ever before, thanks to a firmer spring and damper set-up, and a centre diff that’s no longer passive but electronically controlled. So it’s a very rear-drive car on the way into corners (for agility) but then sends urge to the front on the way out (for security), although in the sportier driving modes it’s a generally more rearward bias. An optional active steering system, fitted to our tester, varies the ratio according to zillions of parameters. Again, the way it does that depends on the driving mode you’ve selected. And the dampers are programmable too (like on the old car). There’s even a set of additional ‘performance’ modes which lock the steering into a fixed, very direct – maybe too direct – ratio. These alter ESP and damper and centre-diff behaviour according to the weather you dial in: snow, wet, dry. Or maybe turning the knob actually alters the weather. Wouldn’t be surprised, this car is so clever. Frankly there are too many modes to fathom in just two days of driving. Anyway, in the sanity modes the R8 is ultra-secure, if a mite dull. But the great thing, in spite of all that electrickery, is it feels natural. The stoutly unflappable
Steering wheel covers multitude of driving and infotainment functions; it’s child’s play to use
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IN DETAIL
In Performance mode, red-flashing tach means change up
R8 V10 Plus gets a louder-pipe setting. Not antisocial
Plus model has no moving aero, but lots of the fixed variety
VERDICT The R8 gets a total rework, and emerges sharper, faster and better but still an R8. A very good thing too.
brakes, big carbon-ceramics, only add to the sense of security. So you get confident and wind the various systems’ wicks up. Plunge into a corner and it taps you on the shoulder, telling you the grip is expiring by gently understeering, clearly felt through the wheel. Then you get the V10 to do its thing and the car squats, leans its rear out a fraction and lunges off. It’s all about small slip angles, but you can trim them as you like, and feel and almost taste them. It’s an engine car rather than a chassis car, in that keeping the engine in its zone takes more of your concentration while the grip can be left to look after itself. But if you find the time to study its subtleties, there’s a lot of love in the cornering too. You’ll remember that the first R8 was very much the most liveable mid-engined supercar. Now we have the McLarens, and they’ve eclipsed the R8 in ride and visibility. But if I had to take a supercar on a winternight road trip, the R8 would stand alone, not just for its all-wheel drive but for its fabulous laser-and-LED headlights. Indoors, of course, Audi has thrown its kitchen sink at you. You’ve got the superb graphics and design of the ‘virtual cockpit’ screen, the telematic features of a high-end saloon, brilliant ergonomics and quality. Yet it still feels like a supercar: low, wide, embracing. Special. Like a supercar to drive, too. And just because it doesn’t opt to scare you, don’t imagine it hides in the emotional background.
9/10
Multifunction screen is all the driver needs. But it’d be easier if passenger could operate nav
19-inch wheels are standard. These are 20s though. Big
Jewel-like quality of aircon controls is a sign of the way it’s done throughout the cabin MMI can also set up the nav, comms and music. Fast internet connection and wifi are standard Solid hoop runs from driver’s door, behind binnacle and down by console – like a single-seater
PHOTOS: ALEX TAPLEY
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SPECS
5204cc V10, 602bhp, 413lb ft
23.0mpg, 287g/km CO2
0–62mph in 3.2secs, 205mph max
1555kg
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£134,500
SEPTEMBER 2015
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“The new Tucson is one in a long continuum of stepping-stones that have brought the Hyundai marque from a backwater also-ran.”
H Y U N DA I T U C SO N
Desert Flower Driving the Hyundai Tucson in The Canary Islands BY ADEL HABIB
Driving the Hyundai Tucson in Gran Canaria feels a bit like listening to grunge in your 40s— it’s a little bit too enjoyable, given how you see yourself, and that makes it a perilous slope. That said Hyundai has done a number of very bright things since Kurt Cobain played his last show, perhaps the smartest of which was backing up their cars with a longer term, higher mileage warranty than offered by its competitors. Whether the warranty benefits the customer or not is beside the point, because it helped Hyundai overcome the perception of reliability issues
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in the market and today. Almost a quarter century later, Hyundai has a reputation for reliability to rival an ailing Toyota, much damaged by runaway accelerators and multiple recalls. Now, as the world’s fourth largest automaker, Hyundai is trying to burnish its badge, capitalizing on the modest halo effect of the Genesis and the growing ubiquity of its other models, Hyundai has brought a premium feel to the Tucson. Hyundai even has a name for its aesthetic, calling it Fluidic Sculpture, a creative ethos that borrows from a much better artist than Matthew Barney; nature itself. The latest iteration of Hyundai’s
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VERDICT A worthy SUV with a badge that has never been more important to our region. The Tucson delivers on Hyundai’s burgeoning brand promise in spades.
7/10
design language is named Storm Edge, and you can imagine what that entails, a brewing storm is beautiful and dangerous when viewed from afar, but at the same time, comfortably at a remove. The Tucson doesn’t strike me as dangerous, although a poor driver can make any car scary, but perhaps the plan was to pack a few thrilling curves into the design, giving family men (and women) like me a little extra excitement in out routine. The SUV sports the now familiar three-bar hexagonal front grille, LED accents, a low stance, rising beltline, black trimmed optional roof rails, and
wraparound taillights. Hyundai is offering a chrome grille and door handle accents, body color mirrors, rear spoiler, aggressive exhaust outlets, a lower bumper, wheel arches, and door trim in contrasting paints, all as part of the standard equipment package in their bid to be the carmaker that gives you more for your money without sacrificing quality. The end result is a more aggressive looking car with far more signature details than before. Hyundais’ Santa Fe and the Sonata received recentish makeovers and these changes to the Tucson shares Hyundai’s modern identity. One only spends so much time outside
their car, and to bolster the brand’s ascension Hyundai has paid special attention to the interior of the Tucson. Materials are higher quality, the layout of the cabin is both more ergonomic and inviting, and you have, on the whole, a roomier, more premium cabin. The entire automotive industry is in love with soft-touch plastics these days, and Hyundai is no exception here. The faux burl wood trim is necessarily hard to the touch, and does a pretty good impression of a dead tree (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The leather in the top trim level feels expensive, if not quite Italian, and Hyundai has done a good job of wading up market TOPGEARME.COM
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while keeping the price under control. The infotainment system boasts an 8-inch color display, 6 speakers and an iPod/ USB auxiliary jack for taking your tunes on the road with you. The system sounds good too, with the caveat that road noise can be a bit intrusive at highway speeds. Available with 2.0-litre four-cylinder producing 164bhp, and 205Nm, the little SUV is sufficiently powered, if not overly peppy. Paired with a six-speed automatic, the shift logic is smooth and, while no doubt tuned in part for fuel efficiency, keeps you in the sweet spot of the rev band most of the time. The result is that the Tucson feels smooth and expensive on the road, and manages ruts and bums with newfound authority. Active Cornering Control all-wheel-drive combines with the new suspension to give the Tucson appreciable off-road bona fides.
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IN DETAIL
LED identity LED signature lights let you know the Tucson has arrived
Full Fronting redesigned Grille gives the car a bit more visual pop
I took the Tucson out of town to a rocky out of the way path that I know, and found that it held on to traction tenaciously, even when I asked more of the car than was reasonable. Body roll is kept fairly under control, and the steering system benefits from three presets: Comfort, Normal and Sport modes. The new Tucson is one in a long continuum of stepping-stones that have brought the Hyundai marque from a backwater also-ran, to the mantle of fourth largest carmaker in the world. And while there have been many important moments leading up to now, it feels as if Hyundai has entered a new phase in which it is every bit as relevant and prominent in the consideration set as its competitors. The Tucson shows that the company can compete on both the design and engineering front, and is the first non-Japanese manufacturer to viably compete for the title of best value.
Look Back rear camera makes it safer to back up
“The SUV sports the now familiar three-bar hexagonal front grille, LED accents, a low stance, rising beltline, black trimmed optional roof rails, and wraparound taillights.”
LIFE INSIDE
Seats aren’t overly soft, they hold your body and legs in a supportive embrace plush leather The Tucson’s guts are decidedly up market.
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The Tucson is dead quiet, road noise at a splendid minimum 5” screen comes standard, but there’s an 8” option
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switchgear switch up—feel of knobs and switches in operation is superior to outgoing car
SPECS
2.0-litre four-cyl, Six-speed auto, FWD, 164bhp @ 6,200rpm, 205Nm @ 4,000rpm,
23.0mpg, 287g/km CO2
0–100kph in N/A secs, N/A kph max
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1,508kg
SEPTEMBER 2015
72,000 07 7
Overtaken cars think they’re under attack...
M E RC E D E S -A M G G L E 6 3 S
Sexy beast
Sports. Utility. Coupe. Yes, it can exist... BY PAUL HORRELL
try to approach every car with an open mind, but I was happy to make an exception for this one. First thing, AMG’s hyper-powered versions of Mercedes’s big SUVs have never had much finesse, and fast lorries aren’t my thing. Secondly, the whole idea of a sport-utility coupe is in any case clearly an assault on good sense. Like a pair of high-heeled trainers… but people buy them too. And yet by the end of my time with it, the AMG GLE63 Coupe had gone a long way towards melting my prejudices. The GLE Coupe – available as a Mercedes-Benz with more moderate
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engines as well as this high-test MercedesAMG version – turns out to be a bit of a looker. Certainly much sweeter than the GLE on which it’s based (see over). The Coupe has Mercedes’ new generation of soft, flowing surfaces, so it dodges the angry-mastiff aggression of the BMW X6. From the back, the arched window, tapering pillars, strong haunches and horizontal tail lights bring to mind the S-Class coupe and even, if you employ a squint, the AMG GT. It manages to look smaller than it is. This particular car’s optional 22-inch wheels also confuse the sense of scale. The front cabin is lushly furnished, and in the back there’s enough room
SNAPSHOT
IN DETAIL
Powertrain and suspension are highly configurable
Big, fast car needs big, strong brakes. AMG obliges
Squint hard and you can see the AMG GT. Very hard
Rear visibility very limited, so reversing camera standard
SPECS
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5461cc twin-turbo V8, 4WD, 577bhp, 560lb ft
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23.7mpg, 278g/km CO2
for grown-ups, plus the boot is huge. So the ‘utility’ part of the SUV acronym survives intact. What about the ‘sport’? Well the engine is never in doubt. Downsizing be damned – this twin-turbo V8 isn’t AMG’s new 4.0-litre but the more senior 5.5 job, because it has more torque. Certainly age hasn’t withered it. It’s vastly effective and alluring. This S model makes 577bhp and 560lb ft of torque (there’s also a slightly less nutty non-S version in some markets but not the UK). At low revs, it’s so effortless you’d struggle to believe 2,275kg is involved. Add more revs and throttle travel into the drama, and it flings you down the runway with the authority of a quartet of Rolls-Royce Trents. This is a fabulous car for overtaking. Your high viewpoint gives you an early advantage in peering over verges and hedges to check the next straight. When you get there, the immense traction allows you to put a wheel on the dusty edge of the road as you squirt past. Mind you, be aware that if the engine is switched to Sport mode or the transmission to manual, gearshifts are accompanied by a bellicose explosive popping from the exhaust. Not only are
0–62mph in 4.2secs, 155mph
2275kg
£95,400
you suddenly filling that Micra driver’s windscreen with your vast back bumper, you’re probably making him think he’s on the wrong end of a firing squad. Which might give him a heart attack, but I never felt nervous driving this AMG. The brakes and cornering are immensely secure. The Coupe is wider and lower than the boxier GLE, with some different chassis elements, and it’s only the Coupe’s arches that can fit the said 22-inch wheels. Smeared around them are, at the back, 325-section tyres. They’re held rigorously upright by air suspension, adaptive damping and active anti-roll bars. These measures are standard procedure for hyper-powered SUVs, and they mean you won’t unstick them on the road. The AMG can dish out mild understeer on the way into a corner and, if you’ve inhibited the ESP, a slither of oversteer on the way out, especially in the Sport or Sport+ chassis/ powertrain modes. But those attitude shifts are very slight, and basically
THE RIVAL
BMW X6M
Slightly more engaging to drive, but we can’t see past its aggressive styling. Is it just us?
VERDICT Blisteringly fast, surprisingly useful and not too brutallooking.
7/10
Backseat passengers hope you’ve been to the Driving Academy
everything’s utterly neat and progressive. But it’s also pretty numb and unidirectional – it doesn’t really like letting you in on its secrets or engaging you like the rivals do. And remember it’s wading into the thick of some new and serious competition. Try the BMW X6M, Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Range Rover Sport SVR. Underneath, Mercedes’ big SUVs aren’t as carlike as BMW’s. The GLE Coupe as well as the regular GLE and new GLS use a special platform, rather than one adapted from the E-Class. Which means they have heavier suspension. It’s better able to do the off-road thing. But you can feel the weight of those components as a series of small but flabby aftershocks after
every suspension event. Otherwise, the ride comfort is pretty civil. In fact, generally this is an easy car to rub along with, greasing its way through town without the shunts or snorts you might expect. It feels like a limo after the uncouth AMG G-Class, but I guess that’s not saying much. It’s well-equipped in any case, and a small burrow in the options list will kit it out with a handsomely clever driving-assistance package for those long UK motorway hauls when you aren’t troubling the 155mph limiter. Oh, and you can optionally raise that limiter to 174mph provided you’ve earned your prefect’s badge at the AMG Driving Academy. You need to be worthy of this car, which reckons it’s great at everything. It might have a point.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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Q&A
Bentley Continental GT Continental GT gets more power but not much else changes BY OLLIE MARRIAGE OK, I get it, spot the difference right?
Indeed. This is a visual nip/tuck for the Conti GT that starts at the front bumper and finishes at the rear spoiler and does, well, not that much in between. There are new B-for-Bentley vents on the front flanks, three new colours, more leather choices, knurled gearlever paddles, on-board wi-fi is standard, there are new dial typefaces and a reshaped steering wheel. What about more power?
Oh yes, a bit of that too, but you’re not going to feel a gain of 15bhp when the W12 was already developing 567 of the suckers. That’s a 2.6 per cent power hike. Whoop. That’s the only one that’s been modded – the range still starts with the 500bhp V8, passing up through the 521bhp V8 S and W12 to W12 Speed with 626bhp. More interestingly, the W12 joins the V8 in having a cylinder shut-off system. No mean feat, you’d imagine, given that it has four banks of cylinders…
Time to try out the 2.0 in the MX-5 BY STEPHEN DOBIE
Why has so little been done in the facelift?
Because it didn’t need to be done. The GT is Bentley’s Porsche 911, the car that defines the brand to such an extent it can’t afford to tamper with it too much. Plus, it’s so well targeted at its audience, the only obvious ‘improvement’ would be to add hybrid tech to boost the smoothness/torque appeal. Last
Not exactly – up from 19.5mpg to 20.1mpg, but due to the W12’s immense torque, it’s apparently quite content running as a 3.0-litre V6 so real-world gains are more significant. When I’ve driven Contis before they’ve always returned 15.0–16.0mpg, but this one was reading 18.4. Does the Conti feel different now?
Not really, but it does look a bit sharper (although those low front scoops are reminiscent of an Audi RS). The W12 wafts effortlessly about the place, but if you like driving, the V8 S is the one to have.
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The 2016 Audi R8 V10 Plus tested SEPTEMBER 2015 ←
Little big brother
It manages its weight better than the W12 and does a passable impression of sportiness. The body control is exceptional for something weighing over 2.3 tonnes, and it sounds properly good, too.
Fuel economy shot up has it?
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M A Z DA M X- 5 2 .0 i
Lots of lovely power, but the facelift is a bit tame. If it ain’t broke...
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VERDICT OK, the facelift may be minor, but the Continental GT still defines the entire luxury GT class.
8/10
year, the then CEO, Wolfgang Schreiber, said that by the end of this decade 90 per cent of Bentleys would be available with hybrid tech. Provided that assumption still holds true, I’m going to assume that the reason this facelift is so minor is that Bentley is busy preparing something much more dramatic. SPECS
5998cc W12, AWD, 582bhp, 531lb ft 20.1mpg, 327g/km CO2 0–62mph in 4.3secs, 198mph 2320kg £150,500
e’ve already sampled the fourth-gen MX-5 a couple of times and, well, we’re smitten. As an exemplar for Mazda’s carefully metered development of the MX-5’s friendly, foolproof persona, the littlest 1.5 version seems nigh-on perfect. But for just £850 extra, this 2.0 not only swells power by 29bhp and torque by 37lb ft, cutting the 0–62mph time by a second, but it also brings with it 17in alloys and sharper mechanicals, including a limited-slip diff at the driven rear axle. While it shares its 158bhp output with the old MX-5 2.0, this engine is totally new. As well as being 8kg lighter than before, it sits lower and further back in the chassis to assist the centre of gravity. Both driver and passenger also sit lower, and ought to know each other well to appreciate being 30mm closer together, again benefiting balance. Balance is a core word for the wee Five, of course. And it continues to joyously and
VERDICT
W
How to have fun at sane speeds and prices. MX-5 feels sharper than ever.
THE RIVAL
TOYOTA GT86
40bhp healthier, but you can’t flip the roof
Small and, again, perfectly formed. Good job, Mazda
SPECS
9/10
Manual ’box, manual handbrake, much manual fun available
1998cc, 4cyl, RWD, 158bhp, 148lb ft
accessibly prove the worth of a good oldfashioned front-engine/rear-drive layout. You don’t need to be a drift god to appreciate how well set up it is, either. Quite the opposite, in fact, given how much it pitches and rolls into corners. While other carmakers run off to their labs to rustle up electronic acronyms for flatter cornering, Mazda realises such physical messages make a dinky sports car like this fun and involving at sane speeds and in the hands of those not equipped with gymkhana-like reactions. The 2.0, though, will be the better car for those who are. It doesn’t feel hugely different to the 1.5 in a lot of circumstances, but it exhibits bigger lungs under sustained acceleration and opens up more options when cornering, having greater influence over your angle of attack. Like its littler sibling, the four-cylinder engine sounds rorty if a bit workmanlike,
40.9mpg, 161g/km CO2
0–62mph in 7.3secs, 133mph
but with Mazda continuing to shun turbocharging – a good thing – it still works best given a jolly good pasting, the big central rev-counter sat slap bang in the driver’s vision. And it’s wonderfully uncomplicated details like this that mean the MX-5 is sweeter than it’s ever been. The manual ’box is superb and should have no one wishing for paddles, while there are no befuddling driving modes to toggle through. The lightweight manual roof flips back in two seconds with one arm movement. Should you stump up the extra for the 2.0? If you want your MX-5 for actual pacy driving, we’d say yes. But the difference isn’t big enough to shame the still excellent 1.5 if you’re short on cash or simply not fussed about the nth degree of cornering precision. The moral of the story? You can’t really buy a bad MX-5…
1075kg
£20,095
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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“The Yaris has the Rangey beat when it’s time to park in the fetid confines of Dubai Mall parking lot, where the spritely Yaris dips in and out of small spaces with ease.”
TOYOTA YA R I S T R D
Aw Yes, it’s Yaris How you look at this car might say more about you than it
Seven or eight years ago, driving the Yaris was a bit like driving a nonhybrid Prius C, except that the “C” didn’t exist yet and wouldn’t be imported to the UAE anyway. Like the “C” the Yaris afforded good fuel efficiency, appropriate driving dynamics and, very importantly, competent AC to keep me cool (even when my temper wasn’t) as a newly minted Dubaian. Admittedly, I did not love the old Yaris, but having driven the new car I feel I owe it an overdue apology, one that sounds like something out of a third rate romcom: “it’s not you, it’s
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me.” What the new Yaris has showed me is that this spritely Toyota is a capable budget buster that is perfectly comfortable, as long as my six foot plus frame isn’t crammed in the back. What wasn’t comfortable was showing up two hours late to a dinner because I couldn’t (at that time) find Fish Roundabout with a laser guided fishing pole. So I took it out on the car. Actually, that reminds me of another story. A colleague of mine, who got me my first automotive journalism gig, once said to me with a perfectly straight face: “I hate cars and I’ve just bought a Yaris.” I don’t think
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BY LIAM NELSON
VERDICT This is a much improved luke warm hatch that will get you from A to B with little effort. Also, it’s backed up by Toyota’s great rep for reliability.
7/10
Andy meant to imply that the Yaris wasn’t a car; rather that he only cared about the utility of the thing, not its (all important if you’re into cars) “soul”. I don’t feel equipped to comment on the soul of the Yaris, but I think plenty of readers will know what I mean when I say that this is an area where the Land Cruiser excels. It’s also, and this may just be me, something that I enjoy about my humble Toyota Hilux back in the States (it’s called Tacoma there, presumably after the slightly stinky city in Washington state— they mill paper there and it has a distinct odor). My utilitarian, bombproof truck has a certain
working class nobility— but don’t get me wrong I’d trade it for an LFA in a hot minute. The Toyota press release for the Yaris describes the car as fun and frugal. I can’t argue with the frugality and, as all but the least imaginative amongst us know; you make your own fun. And you could certainly make some in the Yaris, you just might need a little more imagination than the 22 year old in the SLS AMG one lane over at the stop light on Beach Road. Our test car was powered by a 1.5-liter, 16-valve, four-cylinder DOHC engine aided by variable valve timing (VVT-i), which adjusts the relationship between the
camshaft drive and intake camshaft on the fly. The net result is that the Yaris musters 107 hp at 6,000 rpm and 104 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,200 rpm. The car has a pleasantly broad torque curve, which makes the simple four-speed electronically controlled automatic transmission quite sufficient across different types of driving (maybe not the track). The tranny is also quite lightweight, and boasts low friction performance for longer life and greater efficiency. There’s a 1.3L four-cylinder available too, which puts out 84bhp. The front end rides on a MacPhersonstrut while the rear claims a torsion-beam TOPGEARME.COM
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suspension system, both of which Toyota says they tune “to deliver a smooth ride and engaging driving feel.” I did find the Yaris to be fairly smooth overall, but I’d replace the word “engaging” with “inoffensive.” Not surprisingly the Yaris is piloted via Toyota’s take on electric power steering, and it’s pretty good. Yes, it’s a tad less connected feeling than the old hydraulic systems, but it’s responsive and balanced at just about any speed (we never got it going faster than 125 kph because, this just isn’t that kind of car). What we did notice is that the car is very at home on the highway, except perhaps when a Range Rover is a half-meter off your rear bumper flashing his brights— because honestly, it’s always a dude. The Yaris has the Rangey beat when it’s time to park in the fetid confines of Dubai Mall parking lot, where the spritely Yaris dips in and out of small spaces with ease. OK fine, the parking assist on the Range Rover is damned impressive, but that’s cheating. Having a huge, annoyed SUV (sorry bro, you really did sneak up on me) on your tail is an eye opening experience in a compact car, so it’s good to know that the Yaris has a nice regiment of safety feature. Like all Toyota’s, you get their “Star Safety System,” which includes Vehicle Stability Control, Traction Control, Anti-lock Braking System (I should hope so, it’s 2014), Electronic Brake-Force Distribution and Brake Assist. The body is designed to absorb impacts, using high-tensile strength steel to diffuse energy in a crash. You get nine-standard airbags, including front-passenger dual-stage airbags, front-seat mounted side
LIFE INSIDE
1 2 3 4 5
1
5
2
Bluetooth FTW. You’ll have to pay to add it, but it makes the infotainment system a lot more fun
airbags and a knee airbag for the driver. Roll-sensing side airbags are fitted to both front and rear seats. There’s also something called Advanced Whiplash InjuryLessening in which the “front-seat structure helps to ensure that the region from the head to the lower back are equally supported, helping to reduce whiplash-type injuries during certain types of rear end collisions.” I need that, I’m pretty sure. Anyway, it’s not so much that the Yaris is the pinnacle of driver safety (Mercedes S-Class and Tesla Model S come to mind) but rather that small cars are much more technology rich and far safer than they were back in the day. You might feel safer driving a big SUV, but unless you somehow manage to crash into yourself, that type of thinking is a bit one sided. Inside you get a few amenities, like an auxiliary input on the stereo, steering wheel controls, and smart entry in higher trim levels. Bluetooth is a dealer add on, and in my opinion it’s a must have option so plan on spending up for it (assuming you Yaris buyers can handle that thought). The interior is about what you’d expect, maybe a tad more festive than the outgoing model, but certainly not where “the money went,” and nor should it be in this segment. The Yaris is a good car made by a company with a reputation for incredible value and reliability. Things change and we all know the path has been bumpier for Toyota over the last half decade. I’m not going to rehash any of the recalls here, but suffice to say that the nice people in Toyota City are probably pleased that it’s been GM taking their lumps in the news of late over
SNAPSHOT
IN DETAIL
Just Grillin’ the car’s front end is redesigned to please
In Stitches Red thread gives the wheel a premium feel
Stability Control Great for the track (just kidding)
the Cobalt ignition defect woes. The Yaris, isn’t likely to bring woes to anyone’s doorstep I’d guess, but you never know. But by reacquainting myself with the car, albeit the new model, I came to realize something: when we’re at our worst, as I was briefly upon moving to Dubai, we tend to blame others around us. So the next time your ride has you mad, maybe think about taking a long look in the vanity mirror— it might not be the car you’re really mad at.
“So the next time your ride has you mad, maybe think about taking a long look in the vanity mirror— it might not be the car you’re really mad at.”
Roll-sensing side airbags more high tech safety from this bargain Toyota Advanced Whiplash InjuryLessening keeping you safer out there on the road CVT Transmission the fun never stops and it never shifts, either Steering Wheel Controls handle your audio needs right from the wheel, just like a big boy car
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PHOTOS: MALEK FAYOUMI
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SPECS
1.5-liter, 16-valve, four-cylinder DOHC with VVT-I, 107 hp @ 6,000 rpm and 104 lb.-ft. of torque @ 4,200 rpm, 35mpg, 75g/km CO2 0–100kph in N/Asecs, 165mph max TOPGEARME.COM
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SEPTEMBER 2015
1555kg TBD 08 5
H Y U N DA I i 3 0 T U R B O
Flirty thirty
QUICK TWIN TEST
The i30’s dossier has been sexed up BY OLLIE KEW
SsangYong Tivoli vs Suzuki Vitara
The first ’Ring-tested hot hatch with a fiveyear warranty...
VERDICT Honestly, it’s a good car, but needs more. More power, more feel.
6/10 1591cc 4cyl turbo, FWD, 183bhp, 195lb ft 086
Crossovers are booming, but which bargain option is best? BY OLLIE KEW
NEXT ISSUE
38.7mpg, 169g/km CO2
A 2R 0 1 25 0 J1 T5O P←G ET AO RP .GC EOAMR M E . C O M S EUPGTUE SMTB E
there’s a turbocharger on board, the engine produces just 183bhp, which means a 0–62mph time of eight seconds flat. Not exactly hair-raising. In the real world, of course, 183bhp is plenty for any rational human being. It feels punchy, though, and fast enough for most. Same goes with the handling. It will certainly go around corners, many of them with much haste, while body control is also good. It rides nicely too, if a little fussily. However, we’d prefer more feel from the steering. It’s accurate, sure – as in, it goes where you generally point it – but there’s not much feel, despite a three-stage steering set-up (Comfort, Normal, Sport). And the engine needs a better, more refined note. It’s a little too droney. And you cannot overlook the similarly priced Ford Focus ST – the major fly in Hyundai’s soup. The Ford is much more powerful, much quicker and easily trumps the 30 for driver appeal. So it’s a solid effort from Hyundai – and one that wouldn’t need much work to make it much, much hotter – but we wanted more from that badge. Shame.
0–62mph in 8.0secs, 136mph
1394kg
£23,000
South Korea’s lesser-known carmaker would kill for a slice of such success. SsangYong is on the right track by entering the booming crossover market, with the entry-level Tivoli offering seven airbags, cruise control and a five-year warranty for sub-£13k. This mid-range EX model is £14,600.
Lexus RX tested
Cor, a chunky flat-bottomed wheel! And there’s more. The materials aren’t horrid, there’s useful seating adjustment and it all feels nicely screwed down. The tall, Hyundai-style dash layout is pleasing, but beware the petulant touchscreen.
ARE THEY TINNY INSIDE?
Perhaps this car’s childish, coloured dash didn’t help, but the pricier Vitara’s perceived quality is low. Too many random finishes, cheap-feeling vents and a flimsy lightness to controls and the crucial door-slam test. Lacks showroom spark.
It’s about neck and neck between the Tivoli and Vitara for occupant space, with the SsangYong perhaps just edging rear legroom, but losing on visibility. On paper, the Korean’s 423-litre boot trumps the Vitara’s 375-litre effort, but the Tivoli’s higher load lip and shallower shape is less useful.
WHICH IS BEST FOR FAMILIES?
Uninviting it may be, but the Vitara’s Subaru-like utilitarianism has its boons. This 4x4 version will tow 1,600kg (the AWD Tivoli pulls 100kg less), yet it’s cheaper to fuel, tax and insure. And for transporting your dearest, the Vitara’s five-star NCAP rating is gold dust. Tivoli? Not tested...
Here’s where SsangYong’s lack of experience in this sector tells. There’s an unnerving mishmash between the pedal weights, reminding you what it was like to have L-plates. And progress is further limited by the asthmatic engine’s lethargy. Pity.
ANY GOOD TO DRIVE?
The Suzuki also struggles with a strained motor, but counters with a slicker, VW Up-like gearshift, more considered low-speed ride and superior cabin insulation. Little things, but they add up to an easier drive than the Tivoli.
FOR Looks zany, very spacious and the cabin is properly sorted. At £13k basic, it’s very reasonably priced... AGAINST Schizophrenic controls and overworked engine need polishing. VERDICT Fit for purpose. If Lidl made cars...
5/10
EVOQUES FOR 50% OFF ?
The Vitara beats the S-Y on pedigree – it’s been a UK stalwart since the late Eighties. This one’s the least agricultural yet, as Suzuki cottons on to the lust for rufty-tufty hatches. We’re driving a topspec SZ5, which costs just under £20k. Less eyecatching (and polarising) than the Tivoli, no?
4195mm
1597cc, 4cyl, FWD, 126bhp, 118lb ft 44.1 mpg, 149 g/km CO2 0–62mph in 12.0secs, 106mph 1270kg £14,600
VERDICT
FOR Suzuki is ace at honest, cheap cars. This is fundamentally a good egg. Comfy, too. AGAINST Gutless engine and crass cabin betray the penny-saving. VERDICT Hardly dear, and worth it for the sweeter drive.
1610mm
T
1590mm
his car has a turbo. It says as much on the back, which reads ‘i30 Turbo’. Nearly every car these days has a turbo, which makes the specific mention of this one Something Important. It means we are looking at a Hyundai hot hatch. Well, lukewarm hatch, anyway. This Turbo is the new range-topper in the i30 line-up, here featuring a boosted version of Hyundai’s 1.6-litre four-cylinder ‘Gamma’ petrol engine. Boost is good. And the premise is set up nicely; there’s a handy 28 per cent hike in power, 38 per cent more torque, stiffer, ‘sports-tuned’ suspension, a more direct steering set-up, bigger, 300mm vented brake discs up front and 284mm solid discs at the back. About that suspension. Hyundai has – whisper it – honed the new i30 Turbo on an infamous stretch of road called the ‘Nürburgring’. Yep, this little hatchback with a five-year warranty and honest demeanour was subjected to 110 laps of the ’Ring every week, over the course of a four to six week development period. Imagine all the Rocky training montages, all at the same time. Ouchy. You’d imagine it to be fast and pointy, then. And you’d be wrong, sadly. Though
7/10
4175mm
1586cc, 4cyl, 4WD, 118bhp, 115 lb ft 50.4 mpg, 130g/km CO2 0–62mph in 12.0secs, 112mph 1382kg £19,799 TOPGEARME.COM
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PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS
WINGED FURY Is the GT3 RS so track-focused you can’t use it on the road? Only one way to find out. Go for a drive. A long one WORDS: OLLIE MARRIAGE / PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD PARDON
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS
s I write this, the GT3 RS is parked outside my window. I’m finding it a struggle to remain indoors. It’s a lovely warm day, I could just take off, go and get another hit. It’s not long since my last. I got home at 3am this morning, having driven 700 miles in two days all over north Wales. And all I want to do is drive some more. It pains me mightily to admit it, but I misjudged the GT3 RS when I drove it on its launch in Germany and reviewed it on our website. “I can’t help thinking it’s a bit of a shame you have to be going so fast to get your kicks,” I wrote. Wrong. It felt like that in Germany because on smooth roads the car never seemed to have to work anything like as hard as the driver, and on track… well, as you can read on page 97, that was a different matter. Now I’m in Wales, on the same roads I took the standard GT3 to almost exactly two years ago. Partly to play spot the difference, partly because the roads around Bala are just spectacular. I got here in the same way, too – via the tangle of roadworks, congestion and identi-awful services that is Britain’s motorway network. The new GT3 RS is only available, like the GT3, with a PDK gearbox. It goes a long way to convincing you that you could live with the GT3 RS as an everyday car. Just because you could doesn’t mean you should, though. You’d eventually become irritated by it, and that would be a shame. Your spine would hunch into the seats, you’d never hear Chris Evans over the white noise of road roar and you’d flinch at every cat’s eye. Constricted, deaf and numbed, you’d suffer a slow slide into masochism and lose sight of why this car is so great. So don’t do it to yourself. And besides, who on the M42 is going to admire the carbon bonnet, boot and rear wing? The plastic windows, sticker-for-a-badge and magnesium roof panel (30 per cent lighter than aluminium)? No one, that’s who. It’s tempting to view all this as unnecessary sparkle, designed to sucker in the geeky and fetishistic. If Porsche had stuck with a conventional aluminium roof, the car would have weighed 1,421.1kg instead of 1,420kg. And yet they persevered with this world first, a component that’s 1mm thick, made from magnesium sourced in Malaysia, shaped in Canada and finally fitted in Germany. All for a single saved kilo. But as I’m sure you’re aware, every little helps. And lots of little eventually adds up to something big. Porsche has put the same attention to detail into everything. It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever see the titanium con rods or the crankshaft, made of the same V361 super-high-purity steel as the 919 Le Mans car’s, that had to be remelted multiple times in order to achieve the strength and grain it needs. But they’re there. Likewise the dry-sump lubricated engine that now has a 4mm longer stroke, taking the
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“THE GT3 RS WEARS ITS MOTORSPORT BACKGROUND CLOSE TO THE SURFACE”
PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS Price: £131,296 Engine: 3996cc naturally aspirated flat 6cyl, 492bhp, 339lb ft, Performance: 0–62mph in 3.3secs, 193mph Transmission: 7spd PDK, RWD Economy: 22.2mpg, 296g/km CO2 Weight: 1420kg Front spoiler generates 110kg of downforce; rear wing makes 220kg
The GT3 RS relishes a bumpy British B-road. Who’d have thought it...
3.8-litre engine out to 4.0 litres, gaining 25bhp and 15lb ft. And the ball-jointed suspension. And the (admittedly optional) lightweight lithiumion battery. And the titanium exhaust. What you can see is the car itself. Oof. Where does Cup car end and road car start? How are those rear wheelarch clearances legal? It doesn’t look self-conscious or visually overblown (no parody of a racing stripe here), it just looks mighty. It looks, to be frank, like the components are too big for the bodyshell. Those wheels pop out of the arches, you could host a state banquet on the rear wing, even the headlights seem more pronounced, artificially enhanced by the newly sculpted bonnet and roof. For two days solid, photographer Richard Pardon and I can’t stop staring at it. There’s not a bad angle on it. The GT3 RS wears its motorsport background so close to the surface that occasionally it bursts through. It’s the first of Porsche’s naturally aspirated GT cars to use the wider Turbo body, which brings wider track widths (good for grip) and side air intakes
(the ram-air effect is good for power). The broader bodyshell can’t help but add weight, yet thanks to all those marginal gains, it’s 10kg lighter than the GT3. And much more aerodynamically effective. Those slats above the front wheels vent high-pressure air from the wheelarches, allowing the front spoiler to do its job more effectively, generating 110kg of downforce at 125mph. In turn, this meant the engineers could fit a bigger rear wing to balance things out. Excellent. Another 220kg of downforce. In
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS total, the GT3 RS generates 80 per cent of the downforce of the Cup racing car. Still not enough grip? Those vast 21-inch rear wheels are wrapped in comical 325/30 Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres and, to top it all, don’t forget the flat-six hangs out the back, too. Grip, frankly, is ludicrous. There’s an on-board g-meter. We took a picture of it. Have a look at the readings. Traction is equally daft. You can come out of a hairpin in first gear, give it everything, and you still won’t unstick the rears. I know, I tried. Repeatedly. In fact, the only way to do the sideways stuff is to indulge a secret Porsche PDK trick. Pull both paddles and you get neutral, give it a dose of gas, release the paddles which dumps the clutch, the tyres unhook, and the noise and drama begins. Porsche isn’t quite so overt about what the paddleneutral function is for. The line in the bumf says it is possible “to influence driving dynamics by a rapid onset of propulsive power when engaging the clutch… the rear of the car can be intentionally destabilised for dynamic turn-in behaviour when cornering”. Hmm, Porsche needs to learn when to call a spade a spade. Precis: it’s a shortcut to hero mode. Skids and burnouts aren’t really a key facet of the RS’s repertoire. This is not a muscle car, it’s a precision instrument. It will do the silly stuff, and it’ll do it with utter focus, but to really understand the GT3 RS, all you need to do is drive. And keep driving. Then drive some more. Because driving is what the GT3 RS does beautifully. This is not a Lamborghini-esque piece of street theatre, it doesn’t have the drama of the Ferrari 488 GTB or the ride comfort of a McLaren 650S. It has no fallback position. It doesn’t need one. Where the standard GT3 is surprisingly magnanimous, the GT3 RS is ruthless. Don’t worry – it’s on your side, but its take-noprisoners attitude to roads is something to experience. It’s not feral, because that implies something wild and out of control. No, this is something implacable, hinting at contained violence, but never hot-headed. It’s the Terminator of roads. Lousy film reference, but you get the idea. This makes it sound rather cold, but it’s not. The way it goes down the B4391, one of my top five roads ever, is deliciously, intensely involving. I was worried from that first drive in Germany that the minimal suspension travel would make it brittle and snatchy over here – and it does skip under power occasionally as it fights the runkled surface for available grip. But you soon realise that, far from being frightening, this is a mark of how much information is coming back at you. I’ve done Bala, and now I need more. Roads, scenery, driving – I can’t help myself, I don’t want to stop. So I’m off further north making my own compilation of Wales’s greatest hits. It’s mesmeric on smooth, wide A-roads such as the A470, struggles slightly on the small stuff due to width rather than body composure. It’s a very wide car. But I like it best on a two-lane B-road. Enough room to play with, but with plenty to keep you occupied. And still the GT3 RS goes exactly where I point it.
What does 1.7g feel like? Like your neck isn’t strong enough to cope
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“ THE TAKE-NO-PRISONERS ATTITUDE TO ROADS IS SOMETHING TO EXPERIENCE”
21in wheels wear 325/30 Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres TOPGEARME.COM
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SEPTEMBER 2015
09 3
PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS
“THE MIGHTY FLAT-SIX IS CHUNTERING AND YELPING AND HOWLING AND SOARING” Llanberis Pass, 9pm. Imagine the sound. It was better than that
Speed of attack is almost irrelevant. It doesn’t understeer, it just turns. Personally, there’s a part of me that misses the bobble and sniff of old 911s, the way the nose searched out cambers and ruts. Partnered with that was gorgeous steering feel, but also a hint of fear that all might not be well, that the grip might run out. The longer wheelbase has shifted the weight distribution, so the rear end no longer acts like such a lever for the front, plus there’s fourwheel steering and dynamic engine mounts and downforce, all of which has helped make the front end ultra-positive and reassuring. It hasn’t helped natural steering feel, but in this instance, with zero slack anywhere in the chassis, you get more information that you can possibly process. And information is the RS’s secret. As a result, I resolve to give myself information overload by driving everywhere with the dampers hardened up. It’s strangely addictive and not nearly as masochistic as I feared. Because this car is about driving, you don’t worry about anything else. As a result, I’ve no idea what the sound system is like, nor did I bother with the new Pit Speed function. This, not the wide boy Turbo S, is the ultimate 911. It compels you to concentrate, to just press pedals and turn steering. And the reactions you get from the controls are so instant, so perfectly tuned into your movements that you and the car flow together, accelerating, braking, turning. And repeating. Ideally ad infinitum. Or until the petrol runs out. You find yourself celebrating the skips and bumps, because nothing appears to be able to throw this car off line. You relish the ruthless attitude, as you’re so absorbed in the driving. And you don’t have to be a great driver to enjoy it, you just have to give yourself over to the car. It feels bombproof, both in its abilities and its mechanical robustness, a hunkered-down gutsiness underpins the whole car. And the cabin. It might have a lot of equipment, but I can’t think of a better driving environment.
Big brakes are essential for such big power
I can’t stop driving. We’re way beyond Bala now, homing in on the Llanberis Pass, the sheer-sided heart of Snowdonia. The sun is setting and the mighty flat-six is chuntering and yelping and howling and soaring: 8,800rpm, that’ll do. It’s tight as a drum, yet bursting with energy and rips through the rev band like a whip crack. And the soundtrack, as it echoes off the slate and rock, is spectacular. Natural aspiration. There’s simply nothing to beat it. Why would you need to go faster? Honestly, the speeds this car could ratchet up are insane. I’m becoming addicted. Up and down the Llanberis Pass I drive, while a drone flies above me and shutters click in the hillsides. Just one more pass? Oh, go on then. This is a difficult, treacherous road, lined on one side with vicious slabs of hewn rock and on the other with the roots of the mountains themselves. The RS snarls along here, never puts a foot wrong. It hasn’t in two days. I was worried the GT3 RS had become so capable that at road speeds it would seem bored, grumpily insistent that it had to be taken to a track to give its best. Instead it’s mesmerising. Time to drive some more.
Astonishing grip levels combine with stunning engine to full effect is stunning
TAKE IT TO THE TRACK... The GT3 RS finds another dimension when you take it on a track – the rollercoaster ride that is Bilster Berg in Germany, in this instance. Here, you get to find out what happens when the grip runs out, discover just how adjustable it is at the limit. You have to be confident in it; you can’t show the RS any weakness because if you do, if you back out of the throttle mid-corner, it’ll start to edge out at the back, punish your indecision with a ‘slow’ exit and your heart in your mouth.
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TOPGEARME.COM
So instead man up, trust that amazing front end, stay on the throttle, relish the grip and you’ll come out the far side fully lit and giddy with excitement. It’s a compelling car, it really is. And once you get used to it, you can play with the balance through corners, tickle the throttle to adjust your line, maybe even indulge in a spot of left-foot braking. Why not? It’s not like you’ve got a clutch to worry about.
Is PDK a good thing in Porsche’s most driverfocused car? In this instance, yes. The car is so fast in every other aspect that to have a slow gearbox would be anathema. And it is a brilliant double-clutcher, a proper companion for the epic engine. As you might have gathered, the GT3 RS is not an easy-going car, not laugh-a-minute fun. It’s more serious, more intent than that. Nothing less than a driving weapon.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
09 5
ALPINE CELEBRATION
THE D E N R RETU g in y ll a r d n a s ie h c n e Fr Alpine, beloved by tion a r b le e C is h t d n A . geeks, is back e pie h t f o e c li s a s t n a w concept shows it AL EX HO W E OT O GR AP HY: BA RL O W / PH N SO JA S: RD WO
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S E P T E JMMB A EY R 2015
O P→ GEAR.COM T O P G E A R M E . C OT M
09 7
ALPINE CELEBRATION lpine’s Antony Villain is the latest car designer to accept TopGear’s sketch challenge. It’s not quite The Great British Bake Off, but it’s still illuminating. The rules are simple: can you nail the basic form of a car in three lines? Villain’s task is made trickier because we’re talking in the paddock during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. BJ Baldwin’s Chevy Silverado monster truck has just arrived behind us, star of a gazillion YouTube views and the throbbing, thunderous antithesis of Alpine’s elegant and elfin Celebration concept car. Actually, it sort of sums up the scale of Alpine’s challenge, as it tries to gain traction in a very noisy world. The brand is here in force at FoS, fielding a handful of cars from its 60-year history, including 1978’s outright Le Mans winner, the A442b. Problem is, unless you’re French and/or of a certain age and geeky inclination, you probably don’t know much about Alpine. Is it Renault’s performance subbrand? A Gallic Lotus? And what happened to that partnership with Caterham? More worryingly, does anybody really care? Well, we should. As Villain’s pencil skates across my notepad, it’s clear that the Celebration – first revealed at Le Mans last month – is a thinly disguised production car. Renault will use the real thing to relaunch the Alpine brand in about 18 months’ time, and it will be
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ORIGINAL
CONCEPT
Celebration will probably start life with 2.0-litre turbo, tweaked up from 250bhp to 300bhp and mid-mounted. Debt to A110 is obvious but reboot is no lazy retread. Might end up racing
A110 started life with a simple 1108cc engine cradled in an even simpler backbone chassis. Low, light and tough as old boots, hence motorsport success
light, compact, and mid-engined. Think Porsche Cayman or Alfa Romeo 4C – punchy, accessible, shrunken supercars. Villain, who works closely with Renault’s design boss Laurens van den Acker, is core to the team that has relocated the company’s aesthetic mojo, and there’s obviously a ton of motorsport expertise in the wider Renault firmament. This bodes well. Happily, the Celebration concept is one of those cars that looks and feels instantly fresh in the flesh, and channels the spirit of the Sixties A110 without being obviously retro. Still, after 20 years MIA, there’s clearly a lot of work to be done. “Alpine is probably best known for its rallying exploits, and then Le Mans after that,” Villain says. “I have a clear image in my mind of a really light, agile car drifting in the Monte Carlo rally. French people of a certain age definitely remember Alpine. The younger generation and people outside France, well, we know we have a job to do reminding them about who we are and what we stand for. Where Alpine is known, it is embraced with great passion and positivity.” True enough. A general lack of awareness certainly hasn’t hampered Alpine’s cult status, and the brand’s roots tick all the right boxes. Dieppebased Renault dealer and Alpine founder Jean Rédélé raced and rallied the 4CV to a class win at the 1952 Mille Miglia and almost managed a similar feat at Le Mans the same year. The Michelotti-designed 4CV Special Sport morphed into the first official Alpine, the A106 – “The adjective [Alpine] epitomises the pleasure of driving on mountain roads,” Rédélé claimed – and the cars were
innovative, robust and modestly powered but effective motorsport tools. None more so than the A110; although it arrived in 1961, it was still sufficiently on the money to win the World Rally Championship in 1973 even after its none-more-Seventies A310 successor had rocked up as Renault came to the rescue (remember how many cars and companies the ’73 energy crisis killed?) Alpine also contested Le Mans 11 times, that ’78 victory the last as Renault focused on Formula One, and some newfangled technology called turbocharging. The road-car division petered out with the Esprit-alike A610 in 1995, although the Dieppe factory was kept busy building RenaultSport cars. The reawakening was heralded by 2012’s A110-50 show car, a piece of design eye candy no one was ever going to build a viable business case around. There was also a carbon-fibre-chassied Gran Turismo Vision GT earlier this year, powered by a mid-mounted, 450bhp V8, also about as realistic as an entire squadron of airborne pigs. We should also point out that the Signatech-Alpine A450b is currently competing in the WEC, and raced at Le Mans (DNF sadly). “It will showcase our ability in parts of the world that are important for our brand,” Alpine’s CEO Bernard Ollivier commented. “This programme will benefit Alpine’s image across the globe.” Indeed. But the car you see here is what Monsieur Ollivier is banking on becoming the bottom-line-fattening unit-shifter, and the campaign begins now. Like Nissan’s fabulous 2013 IDx Tokyo show car, which reminded us
Alpine flies the tricolour at very British Goodwood...
“ALPINE IS PROBABLY BEST KNOWN FOR ITS RALLYING EXPLOITS”
It’s showdown time at the dry ice factory
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SEPTEMBER 2015
09 9
ALPINE ALPINECELEBRATION CELEBRATION
how funky the Seventies Bluebird 510 was, by mining relatively obscure source material, the Alpine somehow manages to punch way above its weight. It delivers a warm blast of nostalgia while intriguing you with its left-fieldedness at the same time. (NB: the IDx, apparently confirmed for production, is now not happening after all. Boo.) As per the TG test, the car is easily, winningly assimilable: it has a strong face, a dropping line to the rear, hungry wheelarches and a clever roof treatment. Back to Villain for more insight. “The A110-50 was a pure concept. With this car, we focused on the fundamentals,” he says. “We are working step by step to bring the brand to production. We’ve kept it compact to reduce weight and to promote a really good power-to-weight ratio. It’s a car that you can use every day, but it’s also something playful.” Villain admits that the A110 is the most iconic Alpine, so began the reboot with the smaller auxiliary lights at the front. The new car’s rear end doesn’t taper away as dramatically as the original’s, but the rear window is unusually proportioned. There’s a good reason for this: one of the A110’s quirks was that its back window was actually a windscreen purloined from another car. The white-coloured inset on the rear is a nod to the graphics of Sixties and Seventies racing cars (Villain mentions the Shelby Cobra and Porsche 909). Although pictured here with its Goodwood graphic – intertwined Union Jack
Carbon-fibre wing mirrors exude Gallic chic. Sacré bleu
ALPINE VIEW
CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN OF AUTO EXCELLENCE
10 1000
A442B
Won Le Mans in ’78: 2.1-litre turbo V6 saw it hit 221mph
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and French tricolour – the strip on the chunky C-pillar says it all. Villain laughs. “It’s made in France, and we are very proud of that. But it’s not aggressive or arrogant.” Bien sûr que non. It’s small, the engine’s in the right place, and you immediately want to take it for an improvisational razz along the sort of leafy roads that would give you the collywobbles behind the wheel of a LaFerrari or McLaren P1. No word yet on what the engine will be, but if, say, the 250bhp, 2.0-litre turbo unit from the Megane RenaultSport ended up in there, we’d be delighted. No true Alpine rallyist would choose a dual-clutch auto, but that’s what’s on the cards, and you can’t always get what you want. Besides, if they keep the weight pegged to a rumoured 1,100kg, and can sort out the software glitches that blighted the Clio RS’s paddle-shift, it could suit the car’s character. The Caterham joint venture, dissolved in 2013 amid some frustration, will still imbue the Alpine with a minimalist character, although Villain insists that’s integral to the brand anyway. As is a wider Gallic tendency to “disrupt”. “Challenging things is part of the French culture. We take risks, sometimes perhaps too big a risk, and it hasn’t always worked out,” Villain concedes. “Now we want to combine this attitude with a real consistency. We want to avoid the wavy up-and-down line, you know?”
“THE ALPINE DELIVERS A WARM BLAST OF NOSTALGIA”
A310
Arrived in ’71, exited in ’85, 11,500 sold. Ésprit français
A610 GTA
Marked the end of the road for road-going Alpines, until now...
FERRARI 488 GTB
H O R S E WORDS: SAM PHILIP / PICTURES: JOHN WYCHERLEY
S H O W A new Ferrari has entered the stable. It has 661bhp, 560lb ft of torque and, shhh, a turbo... TOPGEAR.COM
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FERRARI 488 GTB
“ WHERE FERRARI LEADS, THE REST TEND TO FOLLOW”
small company from northern Italy recently chose to turbocharge one of its sports cars, a decision of potential interest to the few thousand people annually with £180,000 to spend on an impractical, fast two-seat coupe. There were several good reasons why this small company from northern Italy made this decision. The newly turbocharged sports car makes far more power and torque than its naturally aspirated predecessor, helping it to go considerably quicker both in a straight line and around a track. It will do this while burning a bit less fuel and emitting a bit less carbon dioxide. You would think, therefore, that the decision of this small company from northern Italy to turbocharge one of its sports cars would be viewed as a) blindingly obvious, uncontroversial, and b) pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme. Ford fitting a new indicator stalk to the Fiesta would have a greater cumulative impact on the driving world. Problem is, the small company from northern Italy is Ferrari, and the sports car is the 488 GTB, successor to the 458 Italia and Speciale. Which means the decision to turbocharge has had the sort of response you’d expect were, say, the Pope to rock up to midnight mass sporting a peroxide mohawk.
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There are good reasons for this. Firstly, because to experience – ideally from the driver’s seat, but frankly anywhere within a four-mile radius – a 458 Speciale at full chat, banging off its 9,000rpm limit, was one of the modern motoring phenomena, an affirmation of the rightness of high-revving, naturally aspirated sports cars. But also because where Ferrari leads, the rest tend to follow. If even Maranello – with its all-but-infinite engineering budget – can’t stem the tide of turbocharging, what hope is there for the cars the rest of us drive? For while turbos may offer an easy slug of extra power for less fuel, we all know of their fuzzying effect on engine response, how they mute noise and dull throttle. Why have you betrayed us, Ferrari? Ferrari, fear not, is aware of this sensitivity. Before being permitted to do anything so uncouth as drive the 488, we were subjected to a monster press briefing, in which the Maranello boffins spent many hours and several million PowerPoint slides explaining how they’d engineered a turbo engine with the reactions and feel of a nat-asp V8. Which begs the question: if you can make a turbo engine feel like a non-turbo engine, why make it turbo at all? Partly it’s about reducing emissions – though Ferrari isn’t bound by the same CO2 targets as mass-market carmakers, it has to be seen to be heading in the right direction. The 488 officially returns 260g/km, which is Priuslike by supercar standards. Much more, though, it’s about keeping up in the power wars. With McLaren eyeing 700bhp from its turbo V8, Maranello engineers admit the only way to squeeze more power from the 458’s engine would have been to go bigger (adding weight) or hybrid (adding weight). So turbos it is, but the 488’s powerplant is very much not that of the 458 with a couple of blowers welded on. It’s a flat-crank, 3.9-litre engine from the same F154 family as the California – but with bespoke turbos, crank, con rods, exhaust… bespoke pretty much everything, in fact.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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See that hole below the badge? That’s the exit for the blown diffuser
FERRARI 488 GTB The results are faintly menacing. The 488 GTB makes 661bhp and, perhaps even more significantly, 560lb ft of torque, all available from under 3,000rpm. It’ll officially do 0–62mph in 3.0secs, and hit 124mph barely five seconds later. Surface-to-air missiles have boasted a shabbier set of vital statistics. But supercars, of course, are about more than mere numbers. As Ferrari’s chief engineer of Bleepy Warning Noises finally wrapped up the 488 presentation, we escaped into the Maranello hills to see how the new mohawk suited His Holiness. Sweet mother of Stig, the 488 is quick. The first time I find an empty bit of road and depress the throttle, it’s apparent within, ooh, a couple of milliseconds that the 488’s acceleration is a league beyond that of the 458, even beyond the Lambo Huracán, flinging you down the road with the shocking, brutal thrust of a fighter jet on take-off. It’s the sort of acceleration that pins you deep in your seat, that causes a string of involuntary expletives to spew forth from your lips. Approaching a tight right-hander, I glance down at the dash to check what gear I’m in. A couple of microseconds later, I return my eyes to the road and discover with interest that I am a) going 40mph quicker than expected, b) 100 metres closer to the apex than expected and c) have liberated an entire, long-forgotten subfolder of frenzied swearing from deep within my subconscious. This much is clear: if someone has an off in a 488, it’s not going to be small. The software of the 458’s seven-speed dual-clutch ’box has been revised for faster shifts, adding to a surge of torque that is relentless, the power arriving in a continuous deluge with barely a blink between gears. So remorseless is the thrust that I kept battering into the 488’s limiter, expecting the rush never to run out. The throttle response is all but instantaneous, the power linear, even and massive. Fast, then, but does the 488’s engine feel like a Ferrari V8? It doesn’t feel like an old Ferrari V8, that’s for sure. The turbo engine certainly doesn’t gain and lose revs with the massless snap of the old naturally aspirated V8, which would drop from 8,000rpm to idle so quickly you wondered how the rev-counter needle could keep up. Despite Ferrari claiming the 488 boasts the fastest reactions of any turbo engine, there’s no doubting the new V8 is just a mite less frenetic in its response than the 458. Not slow, mind, and addictive in its own way. It’s a different
“SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES HAVE A SHABBIER SET OF VITAL STATISTICS”
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FERRARI 488 GTB
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HOW SSC2 MAKES YOU A DRIVING GOD
The 488 GTB creates less drag than the 458, but generates far more downforce: over 200kg of negative lift at 124mph, to be precise. The monster rear diffuser includes an active flap that opens to reduce drag, or closes to generate even more downforce, welding the rear of the 488 to the road
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THE ENGINE BIT
The 488’s 3.9-litre, flat-crank V8 owes its block and cylinder position to the engine from Ferrari’s California T, but is unique in almost every regard beyond that. There’s a new dry-sump system – the Cali is wet-sumped – along with redesigned cylinder heads, new cams, a new intake system, a new crankshaft, specific intercoolers and new pretty much everything else. The twin-scroll turbos are cutting-edge, with turbine wheels
GENERATION GAME
10 6
made of an aerospace-grade titanium alloy generating 50 per cent less friction than the standard Inconel turbines found in the Cali T. They’re mounted on ball-bearing shafts, reducing friction by a further 30 per cent. The exhaust system is unique, too, a beautiful tangle of metalwork ensuring extended, even-length runners. The result of all this modification is a modestly sized engine with a huge punch, the 488 making a heady 169bhp
F430
per litre of displacement. If the Dodge Viper’s 8.0-litre V10 managed the same power density, it’d generate 1,355bhp. The 488’s powerplant is also, Ferrari says, the most responsive turbocharged performance engine. Plant the throttle, and maximum engine response – not the first jolt, but the full beans – arrives in 0.8 of a second, just a tenth of a second slower than the 458’s whip crack, naturally aspirated V8.
F458
F488
0–62
3.7
3.4
3.0
0–124
12.2
10.4
8.3
MPG
18.6
21.2
24.8
C02
345
275
260
BHP/LITRE
112
125
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ACTIVE AERODYNAMICS
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BLOWN DIFFUSER
DOORHANDLES
Even the 488’s doorhandles have been sculpted to improve airflow. Dubbed ‘shark fins’, they clean and funnel air into the huge intakes above the rear wheels. Impressively, they also open the doors
The 458 Speciale debuted Side Slip Control, which analysed lateral g, yaw and steering angles, before subtly adjusting rear e-diff and traction control to manage slip angles
“We don’t like to add aerodynamic devices on top of the form,” says Ferrari design director Flavio Manzoni. So instead of a whacking great GT3-style rear wing, the 488 employs what Ferrari calls a “blown diffuser”. Air is funnelled into a hole at the base of the rear screen, where it passes over a subtle, hidden lip. An added advantage is that the blown diffuser smooths air in the 488’s wake, increasing the efficiency of the rear diffuser
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Turbo engines need a lot of cooling. The 488’s radiators are 20 per cent larger than those of the 458, with much of the body’s exterior design dictated by the need to get plenty of cold air on board, without ruining aerodynamic efficiency. “It was a very long fight to make our dreams,” says designer Manzoni. “The aero [requirements] drove us crazy...”
Depending on driving mode, SSC could prevent you having a slippery back-to-front accident or, far better, actually hold you in what Ferrari described as “controlled oversteer”
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TWO-FACED
The dual-section front wing serves two functions: jamming air not only into the vast rads, but also over the 488’s underbody vortex generators, which create ground effect without adding unwanted drag
The 488 gets Side Slip Control 2, which adds adaptive damping to the equation. Constantly monitoring the car’s stance, it can soften or stiffen front or rear to help you hold a slide
It works. Astonishingly well. SSC2’s greatest trick is to make a 661bhp, RWD supercar seem manageable and exploitable without ever making its presence felt
FUNCTION OVER FORM
THE AERO BIT
From blown diffusers to vortex generators, how the 488 makes downforce without drag TOPGEARME.COM
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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FERRARI 488 GTB
Red car, green hills, tickled pink
Cabin retains 458’s ‘stick all the buttons on the wheel’ philosophy
sort of power, this: broad-shouldered and all-consuming, an unstoppable wrecking ball of pure speed. And what of the noise? Again, the 488 doesn’t sound like an old Ferrari. Whereas, in that 458 Speciale, you felt you were stretching some sort of mad elastic band as the revs increased, the noise getting higher, tighter, more frenzied, the 488’s soundtrack is more linear, controlled, compressed. It doesn’t have the baritone-to-soprano range of the old nat-asp V8, trading the 458’s vocal diversity for a heftier, chest-filling boom. Certainly it doesn’t get all screaming and sparkly at the top end, just louder, angrier. It sounds not unlike a modern F1 car with its pit-lane limiter on, a bass-heavy, air-bullying thump overlaid with a medley of whooshes, cracks and mechanical edge. Interesting, for sure, but it doesn’t have the fizz of that atmospheric V8. But – as my nan always used to say – what you lose in the noise department, you gain in slip angle. The 458, especially the Speciale, was pretty tidy at the sideways stuff, but the 488 takes it to a whole new level. I’m not the sort of driver to jump in a 600bhp-plus, rear-drive supercar and start immediately drifting it on public roads (I know, what a square), but – with the on-wheel manettino dialled back to CT OFF – after just a few corners I was quickly achieving neat, controllable slides, hanging the 488’s tail out before flicking back into line like a shabby, Cornish Ken Block. I’d love to claim such immaculate oversteer was thanks to my innate talent. But, if I’m being honest, it was very much thanks to the utter genius of the second-gen Side Slip Control (SSC2) installed on the 488, which now adjusts not only the rear diff and electronics, but even the damping front and rear for even greater slip angles. If you fear the increasing complexity of sports cars distracts from the driving experience, try this one before you consign all tech to the dustbin. SSC2 is no now-stop-that-right-now safety net, shutting down the power as soon as it spots a hint of slip. Quite the opposite: it all but encourages you to engage in gorgeous, steady slides, allowing you to get sideways and somehow, imperceptibly, holding you there.
In the aforementioned tech briefing, a Ferrari engineer showed us the equation used to calibrate SSC2. It covered an entire page of A4, and looked like something out of The Theory of Everything. Point is, there’s some very clever stuff going on, but as a driver you have no sensation of the electronics doing their thing, simply that you’ve been transformed, overnight, into a Driving God. Sure, Ferrari could doubtless have mated this genius new system to a nat-asp V8, but the 488’s ludicrous benevolence is thanks at least in part to SSC2 working hand in hand with the vast, level plateau of torque served up from the V8. It’s not all bad news, this turbo lark. So here it is, the £180,000 question: is the 488 GTB a better car than the 458 Italia? The easy answer is this: yes, it is. The 488 GTB costs the same as the 458, but offers a lot more power and speed for less fuel. Simple. Unfortunately things are rarely simple when you’re dealing with a topic as emotive as a shouty red lump of Italian exotica. So the more considered answer is: hmm. Now then. It boils down, I think, to what you want from your V8 supercar. There’s no denying the 488 doesn’t have quite the tingling effervescence of the 458, doesn’t goad you to the red line in quite the same way, doesn’t sing so lustily when you get there. But it feels new, and different, and stonkingly fast. It sounds unique, and offers up a dizzying, crushing surge of torque. It’ll turn you into an oversteering hero on road and track, and use a surprisingly modest amount of fuel while doing so. What’s more important to the sort of person prepared to blow the best part of £200k on a fast car? No idea. Lend me £200k and I’ll tell you. So is the 488 a better car than the 458? Here’s the honest answer. It doesn’t matter. It’s here, and the 458’s gone. Whether you embrace the turbocharged, or pine lustily for the departing days of atmospheric sports cars, the shift is happening. Get used to it. The naturally aspirated era is at its end, but the 488 at least proves the new dawn won’t be one of characterless vacuum cleaners. Welcome, one and all, to the Age of Turbo.
“IT ALL BUT ENCOURAGES YOU TO ENGAGE IN STEADY, GORGEOUS SLIDES”
Witness Sam’s patented ‘apex evasion’ precision driving technique. Skills
FERRARI 488 GTB Price: from £183,974 Engine: 3901cc twin-turbo V8, 661bhp @ 8000rpm, 560lb ft @ 3000rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 3.0secs, 205mph vmax Transmission: 7spd dual-clutch, RWD Economy: 24.8mpg, 260g/km CO2 Weight: 1370kg
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HONDA S660
Imagine Lost in Translation with a few more bhp. But the appeal of small, fun city cars is very easy to understand... WORDS: STEPHEN DOBIE / PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN WYCHERLEY
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Kei cars will fit down any street. Even those they aren’t meant to...
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Miming and pointing can only get you so far. Japan is a country where English is infrequent, both in speech and writing. This, I had so far concluded, is wonderfully refreshing, enough to make even its capital city, Tokyo, feel fantastically alien. But as I fold my (for once) lanky five-feet-nine-inch frame into the dinky Honda S660, I’m suddenly wishing for an English translator. The minimalist dashboard houses no satnav, see, and while I’m loath to rely on such things, it would offer more than a marginal helping hand in navigating a city that simply dwarfs London. My gestures do nothing to acquire a plug-in device to sucker to the screen and keep John Wycherley and me aware of where the hell we are. It’s time to do as our more sociable and adventurous pre-smartphone selves would have done a decade or two ago, then, and prod the S660’s three-cylinder engine into life and burble into the city. And perhaps aimless wandering is best, as we aim to explore the city that bred the diminutive car we’re in, to shed some light on its unconventional form. The S660 confirms to Kei car regulations, you see. In brief, they allow no more than 63bhp from an engine 660cc or smaller, while the car must sit within a footprint smaller than a Renault Twingo’s. Yeah, we’ve got small cars and downsized engines in Europe. But the Kei – an abbreviation of kei-jidōsha, meaning light vehicle – was born way back in 1949, a response to post-war austerity. Tax levies, more space for parking and less congested traffic were the aims. We gained the Mini a little later, of course, but it was born of one man’s vision rather than a wholesale movement. Nearly 40 years passed before we had another car remotely as focused, in the shape of the Smart.
“The S660 is the perfect little pod to take in this eyeboggling city”
If you don’t know the city and can’t read the signs, you will get lost
HONDA S660
Kei dimensions and engine allowances have grown over the years to their current point, reflecting both the car market and the growing size of the city that spawned them; the city we’re in now. Most are sensible city cars, but there is also inventiveness, high points where Japan’s carmakers have squeezed extra spicy ingredients into the Kei cookie cutter. The Honda Beat – a mid-engined, rear-drive roadster from the Nineties – is one such example, and this S660 is its modern successor. Stress-free commuting may be its real reason for being, but with the twee, Elise-esque fabric roof rolled and stored under the front bonnet, the Honda feels like the perfect little pod to take in this eye-boggling city. Our first stop is Hie Jinja, an irresistibly Japaneselooking shrine nestled cosily among glassy modern offices. As Wycherley gets to work, I get out of shot by taking a wander around. It becomes quickly apparent this is a highly spiritual place, with locals lining up to perform a meticulously choreographed ritual before Hie’s altar, comprising bows, claps and bell-ringing. Feeling ill-mannered for rocking up and parking a bright yellow roadster beside the temizuya water feature used for the hand cleansing that starts worship, I wander back to the car. Soon, my worries evaporate; a Rosso Corsa Ferrari FF has arrived, causing more fuss than we have. It immediately gives some context to our shrunk-inthe-wash sports car. The S660 is simply dwarfed by the uncouth Italian, its unmistakably Japanese aesthetic looking right at home, and as we choose to make our escape, its engine, some 90 per cent down on power on the Ferrari’s V12, makes a whole lot less fuss. With just 830kg to shift, our turbo three-pot never feels underendowed, and it powers the rear wheels via
Elise-like roof fills the S660’s luggage space. All of it
Shrine etiquette isn’t Stephen’s strong point. The car makes up for it
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HONDA S660
“ Our rambunctious little roadster looks especially nuts”
a six-speed manual from Honda’s very best box of bits. Its throw is short and slick, its operation to be relished. Not least because you can buzz the engine well past 7,000rpm, the joy telegraphed via a big, central rev-counter. Suddenly, city cars back home seem as dull as the task they’re made for. Keis like this pack fun and grown-up engineering into a package that’s no less wieldy or efficient. After stretching the S660’s legs on the highway – not wishing for any more engine capacity, I might add – we reach pastures far less serene: Shibuya Crossing, the spot that most resembles how Japan’s capital looked as I daydreamt on the plane over. Multiply Times Square by Piccadilly Circus and you’re perhaps halfway there: loud, bright neon adverts broadcasting onto one manic junction. Cars and buses spill in from four directions, and when a full house of red lights pauses traffic chaos, scores of people – up to a thousand in one go – spill into the road to make their way from one side to the other on foot. I fear I’ve lost Wycherley forever, my wingman nipping out of the car to freezeframe the whole thing and, as I watch the last dregs of people leave the road and my lights return to green, he’s been swamped entirely by the fresh set of faces on his portion of pavement. The little Honda ought to feel lost in the big crowd, but its titchy turning circle and inoffensive size allow me to easily navigate through it, as well as disguise my occasionally duff lane choices with some last-minute corrections. Photographer rescued, we seek a break from Shibuya’s bedlam. Parking a car is difficult here, Tokyo’s scant spaces in constant high demand. A beaten-up little alleyway hoves into view, and we point the S660’s nose down it. Few cars could – or perhaps should – be down here, but it’s a perfect demonstration of the benefits the Kei mantra brings. We can park where we like, it seems, with genuine befuddlement at the signs readied as our excuse. Away from the dazzling lights and dizzying crowds, our rambunctious little roadster looks especially nuts. It’s a beguiling
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thing, like a two-thirds scale tribute to the new NSX. If a small car fits your needs, why wouldn’t you have one that looks like this? And while it may simply be the fact I don’t know the Japanese for “tosser”, I’m sensing charm rather than animosity from the pedestrians walking past our quite probably illegally parked car. A Toyota Crown taxi wouldn’t be cut this kind of slack. Tight lanes are not the place to explore the outer reaches of its handling balance, of course, and with grip strong and power low, you’d need a damp go-kart track to make a drift machine of it. But it exhibits its lightness and minimal overhangs with instant and precise direction changes. And no city car I’ve driven has such a low-slung, body-hugging driving position. Honda has taken the Kei limitations and worked up to their borders, taken them as an invitation to experiment. You may need a car that’s cheap to run, but that’s no excuse for a lack of personality. Aptly, an adorable Kei ice cream van now wants to squeeze past, so we make our exit, ducking and diving through Tokyo traffic for another couple of hours. We see day turn to night, the bright lights and boisterous sounds emanating from the city’s busier boroughs taking on a new life away from natural light. Standing above it all is the 333m Tokyo Tower. Given we’re 6,000 miles from home, it would be rude to pass up the opportunity to climb to its uppermost observation deck, 250m skyward. A twilight view of Tokyo is breathtaking. It also presents a new perspective on how intricately packed this city is, the city which helped birth the effortlessly manoeuvrable Kei car. It’s got to be the best way to explore
HONDA S660
Japan’s second tallest structure. Yellow to match the S660. Obvs
“ I don’t know the Japanese for ‘tosser’” Tokyo: Japan’s irresistible oddness – and even a chapter of its post-war recovery – distilled into an unconventional 3.4 by 1.5 metre frame. If you’ve no need for anything in the way of luggage space, this S660 would be a superb way to make innercity commuting less fraught, more fun. But there’s a sucker punch: just like its fellow Kei cars, there are no plans for this little Honda, priced at the yen equivalent of £10,300, to be sold outside of Japan. And after a day succumbing to the S660’s sweetness, I’m struggling to see why – beyond their fragile proportions not yielding spiffing crash results – we’re deprived of this motley crew of mini-cars. Europe likes its city cars strong and stylish, it would seem, and more than a little premium. But everything that’s fashionable now – shrunken three-cylinder engines, a focus on cheap tax and a U-turn on swelling dimensions – has been evident in the Japanese market for more than six decades, with little stars like the S660 peppered across that timeline. After a day of soaking up Tokyo’s sights and sounds inside its cosy little cabin, I feel I must to encourage you to start knocking up the placards of protest now. Every city needs cars like this.
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When a car looks this sweet, you can park it anywhere
HONDA S660 Price: ¥1,980,000 circa £10,300 Engine: 660cc, three-cylinder turbo, 63bhp, 77lb ft Performance: 0–62mph in 10.5secs (estimated), 85mph (estimated) Transmission: 6spd manual, RWD Economy: 59.9mpg, N/A g/km CO2 Weight: 830kg
Forget FFs. The S660 is a real head-turner. And it’s Ferrari yellow
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THE STORY OF TGTV
WORDS:
Like any TV show that decides to have a guest slot, the first thing you do is make a wish list of stars you want. With our list back in 2002, the emphasis really was on the word “wish”. We had Arnie, Tom Cruise, the whole of U2, Beckham, Paul McCartney, Cameron Diaz… basically anybody whose agent was going to say: “Really??!!” And so it was that we found ourselves in the pub one evening – Jeremy, Richard, Jason and I – trying to find the number for the manager of the drummer from The Rubettes, when Harry Enfield walked past. Not three feet from us was an actual celebrity, more to the point an actual celebrity unprotected by the force field of his agent or publicity person, so we pounced. We descended on him like piranha fish in a local swimming bath, like 14-year-olds in a One Direction dressing room. He was British, he was middle class, he was polite. He never stood a chance. With the guest for show one sorted, we now needed the car. It had to be reasonably priced, it had to be uncool in an underdog way, it could only have a modest amount of power so that non-petrolhead celebs would feel comfortable flooring it, and it had to be from a manufacturer who would agree to give us a car. In truth this last point was sort of the clincher, as we discovered when carmaker after carmaker put the phone down on us. But the chap at Suzuki, a wise old fox, understood the tongue in cheekness of the whole venture and stumped up a lovely Liana, little knowing that this unassuming boxy saloon would one day become the most famous car on the planet.
A month later Harry Enfield found himself piloting the Liana around an airfield and then sitting opposite Jeremy in a hangar, telling an audience of 60 gentlemen in Subaru fleeces – chaps who kind of preferred watching Colin McRae to Tim Nice But Dim – all about the experience. The genial comedy maestro didn’t really know what was going on, as you can see from his bemused face in that original show, but nevertheless The Star in a Reasonably Priced Car was off the launch pad and heading for the stratosphere. Sort of. The problem was that no matter how often we sat in Jeremy’s local, we weren’t going to get a celebrity brushing past every week. We called in favours from celebrity petrolheads we knew – Jay Kay and Steve Coogan in particular, both of whom agreed without hesitation, and I will forever be in their debt for that. However, Steve, Jay and Harry gave us a grand total of three, we had ten slots to fill and Renée and Renato weren’t returning our calls. It was at this point we got lucky again. Jeremy rang me one afternoon, just as I’d got off the phone to Bobby Davro’s agent, telling me that he’d bumped into a famous knight of the realm who would love to come and drive a small Japanese saloon around a track. Yes, Sir Michael Gambon was up for it. We are talking here about not only one of the greatest actors of all time, but a man who had refused all chat shows, including Parky. However what those shows didn’t offer was the chance to riff about cars and engines and gearboxes and all the things it turned out that Gambon loves. Dumbledore himself was our first petrolhead-who-youwouldn’t-think-was-a-petrolhead, and TopGear would go on to unearth quite a few of these, including Kevin McCloud, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.
Sir Michael Gambon, knight of the realm, secret petrolhead and giver of his name to a TopGear Track corner
Sir Gambon said he was free to do the following week’s show, which quickly focused our minds on the sort of hospitality our guests were being offered. You see, most celebs when they go on Jonathan Ross or Graham Norton get given a comfy dressing room with en-suite bog, minibar, telly and basically everything you’d get in a top-end Premier Inn. We, however, in those days – and I’m talking about the whole TopGear production crew – had to make do with a Portakabin the size of Frank and Pat Butcher’s minicab office, so we could only afford to cordon off a quarter of it as a top celebrity hangout. Now this was fine for Jay Kay, who only requires some Jaffa Cakes and a chair to keep him happy, but a theatrical deity? How would this fleapit go down? In the end, better than we could ever have imagined. Gambon turned up four hours early, pored over the old planes in the various hangars, then set off in the Liana to do his timed laps. Since he was quite old and wearing a jacket and tie, we weren’t expecting a blistering performance, but then came the moment when he barrelled into the final corner on two wheels, giving the thumbs up to the camera as he went. In honour of his bravery, we instantly named the corner after him, but Gambon’s near-death antics were of much greater significance. He had put the Star in a Car segment on the map – people were no longer talking about it as a bit of telly where petrolheads could have a bit of fun, but as a thing where celebs you’d normally see on a comfy chat-show sofa were now pushing themselves in an exciting environment. Slowly, the guest list started to fill up. Patrick Stewart gave us the nod. At that time he was at the height of his Hollywood fame with the X-Men and Star Trek movies, but like Gambon – maybe old English thesps are just
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Winnebago, Lionel settled in and, as it turned out, was charm personified. In his climb to the top, he’d clearly encountered much worse setbacks than a front-suspension collapse, and he happily joked about lawyers and whiplash claims, and then delivered beautifully in the interview. Basically he gave a masterclass in how to be a big star of the old school. As one series followed another, the popularity of Star in a Car slowly grew, along with the surrealness of the mix. One week it would be Roger Daltrey, a proper rock god, stopping mid-lap and asking for a nice cup of tea; the next, it would be Johnny Vegas, still on L plates, stopping mid-lap and asking for a can of Tennent’s Extra. Equally diverse was the quality of driving. At one bookend you had the likes of Simon Cowell, who we thought was just an overgroomed light-entertainment luvvie, but in fact was a brilliantly focused and brave driver who topped the board on both of his appearances. At the other end of the bookshelf you had Terry Wogan, who never understood or cared that setting a lap time required a different attitude to driving than when you drove to work. In the middle, you had Jimmy Carr, a one-man wrecking ball who had the conviction of Cowell, but was so mental behind the wheel that he rarely managed to complete a lap. I remember driving down to the start line to check on his progress, only to come across The Stig, who doubled as the celebrity tutor, coming the other way. “I give up with that t**t,” he announced with uncharacteristic vigour. “He just won’t listen, and he’ll end up on his roof.” Stig also said it was a shame, because in the rare seconds that Jimmy focused, he was a very natural driver. We pulled Jimmy in, forced the cheeky comic to focus via a bit of tough love, and, as Stig had predicted, he went top of the board. After several series we chopped in the Suzuki Liana and replaced it with the Chevy Lacetti. By now we were no longer
“ LIONEL ARRIVED WITH A CONVOY OF BLACKED-OUT MERCS AND A SCARY MANAGER”
Jeremy didn’t get to feel Cameron’s nose, unlike Andy. So there...
Tom Cruise: forget the Ferrari in Risky Business – all he ever wanted to drive was a Kia Cee’d
SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
STARS IN AND OUT OF CARS James McAvoy: 1:43.6 despite going over the grass. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz: Hollywood royalty come to shonky Dunsfold office
well-mannered – he turned up early and unannounced. In fact, when we saw this chap in jeans and a baseball cap walking towards us, Jeremy turned and said: “Sorry mate, we’re just going through the script here. If you’re dropping a car off, can you talk to one of the lads in the officcccccce… Mr Stewart so nice of you to come how are you please have a seat can I get you a coffee?” A couple of series in, we got our first big American star, Lionel Richie. Since he would obviously be coming with an entourage and a scary manager, we figured we needed to hire our first-ever celebrity Winnebago. Roger, our production manager at the time, is the tightest man you’ll ever meet, so when the man from Ace Winnebago Hire opened up with: “The cheapest one comes for £200...” Roger stopped him right there and told him to deliver it promptly for Lionel day. When it did turn up, it was browny beige and would have easily fitted in the bathroom of Jenson Button’s motorhome. But no matter – it was better than a quarter of a Portakabin. Then Lionel arrived, as expected, with a convoy of three blacked-out Mercs and a very scary manager. That particular day was wet, cold and windy, and as the scary manager stood at the side of the track, his LA tan being stripped away by the sideways British rain, looking at his superstar talent pounding round in a small Japanese car, with no prospect of performing his new single, you just knew he was thinking: “What are we doing here?” “So this is a popular show?” he asked, as he spat rainwater out of his mouth. “Oh yes, very,” I replied. “Millions and millions of viewe…” At that moment, I abandoned the sales pitch because he and I were both looking at Lionel careering across the tarmac in a shower of sparks, the front wheel having completely sheared off. The manager’s jaw muscles did a little dance as the composer of ‘Hello’, wrestling with the remaining three wheels, hurtled across the grass and just missed a pile of tyres. Having retrieved Lionel, we decided he needed hot coffee and shelter from the rain, which meant it was time to unleash the Winnebago. As I opened its door, the smell of mildew from unloved velour came galloping out with quite considerable force, but nevertheless in full Basil Fawlty bowingand-scraping mode, I ushered Lionel and the scary manager up the steps. Once inside, they turned to look at me in stony silence. I peered past them, and it was then that I saw the sole decoration on the wall – an old Athena poster of the Twin Towers. While I beat Roger the production manager to death around the back of the
struggling to find guests, but to pull in the big names, we had to do something we’d hoped we never would, which is let them plug stuff. The diehard TopGear fans whinged, but there wasn’t an infinite supply of petrolhead celebrities out there and the show was starting to go global, so we had to play the game. I guess the turning point was Hugh Grant, who came on to promote a romcom to five million bemused Subaru fans, but in return we got a blindingly funny interview – he is one of the greats in a chatshow chair – and an A-list name we could then use as a magnet for other A-listers. For me personally, the most tumultuous megastar moment came when Ronnie Wood’s
publisher rang and asked if we wanted him on to promote his autobiography. Now I bow to no one in my love of the Stones. I have the bootlegs, the rare vinyl nerd records, the ticket stubs from countless concerts, the mental memory stick of pointless trivia that would make you kill me if we were stuck in a lift. All I’d never done was met an actual Stone, and here was my chance, which was why everyone was quite surprised when I said no. It wasn’t a case of “never meet your heroes”, it was just that I knew the Stones had lived in a bubble for pretty much all of their years, a parallel universe where questions were vetted and anything they didn’t want to do was removed
Ronnie Wood: rock god and fan of extra-strong coffee
from their path before they even knew it would have been there. And if you exist in that sort of environment, the odds are that you won’t give a good interview because, well, you’ve never had to; you’ve never been judged on how funny, revealing or entertaining you are or aren’t, and never been told you were boring, either. I didn’t want Jeremy to have to struggle with a monosyllabic rock god, so with a heavy heart, I declined the offer. But then Ronnie’s publisher rang back and said she knew where I was coming from, but that this would be Ronnie on his own, not Ronnie in Rolling Stones world. Would I like to go around to his house to meet him and have a chat? There was a silence, followed by the sound of all my high-minded principles collapsing in a shameless heap, then finally me squeaking: “What’s the address?” Ronnie himself was waiting on the doorstep to meet me, which made me so nervous, I nearly backed into his Bentley. Inside he had an espresso machine on permanent dispensation mode, and while he drank his 28th coffee of the morning, he told me how much he was looking forward to coming on the show. I suspected he was just being polite and hadn’t actually seen it, and when his daughter had to explain to him who The Stig was, that sort of confirmed things. This mattered not a jot to me, though, because I was already totally starstruck and half an hour later I was also off my tits on quadruple-strength coffee. By then I’d completely forgotten that I’d come to find out if he’d be any good on the show, and was jabbering on about all the Stones concerts I’d seen, reeling off set lists, who did what guitar solo, etc., basically showing off until he’d realise I was the best friend he’d never had. I think at some point he got a word in and mentioned he’d heard I was worried he might not be great as an interview: “Nonsense,” I howled in a caffeine-fuelled yelp. “That must be someone else, not me.” Finally I said I’d see him at the track next Wednesday and he opened his laptop, pulled up an email and said innocently: “Yeah, Dunsfold, I’ve got the address and the details and everything right here.” Inside my coffee-filled head a small bomb went off: “What!!!??? Hang on a minute!!” I thought. “Ronnie’s a Rolling Stone. A Rolling Stone should not be cluttering up his godlike Rolling Stone brain with mundane drivel such as addresses and arrival times – that sort of task is for mere ordinary people.” Since my neurological system was now basically powered by espressos, I decided to share my thoughts with him: “You shouldn’t know
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THE STORY OF TGTV Probably the iconic moment of TopGear TV. Schuey is The Stig!
that! It’s not right!” I declared loudly, and then left a rather baffled Ronnie looking at his laptop as I bid farewell and powered off down his driveway. If you caught that show, you’ll know he was great: funny, modest, charming in his shyness, and I seem to recall he nearly wiped out half the camera crew on the final corner. But that would have been OK. He’s a Rolling Stone. There were many other happy memories from the Chevy Lacetti era. Brian Johnson, what a legend – the blueprint for being world-famous and not letting it change you. He must have been half an hour signing autographs in the audience. Usain Bolt – sheer charisma, Sienna Miller – top girl, James Blunt – too funny, and Eric Bana, who I think could have been top of the Lacetti board if it hadn’t been a wet day on his visit. We’ll never know, but what we do know is the little Chevy ended its reign with Jay Kay as its fastest pilot. Although the Lacetti eventually gave way to the Kia Cee’d, the original Suzuki Liana was still putting in the occasional appearance, on account of it being needed for the Formula One drivers. This little Star in a Car spinoff had begun with Damon Hill, and eventually the board boasted most of the big names, including Lewis, Jenson, Mark Webber and Vettel. Even though we are talking about a 1.6-litre roly-polysuspensioned car, all of these guys took their stint in the Liana extremely seriously, because it was the one time they got to compare themselves in the same car. They would quiz the hapless TopGear producer in charge about all sorts of nonsense: “What was the track temperature when Vettel came down?” “What were the tyre pressures when Lewis did his laps?” Then their hearts would all sink when they asked where the timing device was positioned and the producer would point to a researcher with his finger poised over the stopwatch on his mobile. I say all the F1 drivers took the Liana lap seriously, but there was an exception and, as you can probably guess, he’s Finnish and currently drives for Ferrari. At the time he visited us, Kimi was just returning to F1 with Lotus, and you’d think most drivers coming back to the top arena in motorsport would be anxious to prove they’d still got it. Not this boy. Admittedly it was a wet day, so he was never going to go top of the board, but even so after half a dozen laps, he’d had enough and headed for the arms of the La-Z-Boy chair and the warmth of his motorhome. Don’t get me wrong: he wasn’t sulky – he was perfectly amiable – he just genuinely didn’t give a shit
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what people would think or not think about his lap time. I went into his motorhome and told him it had stopped raining and the track was drying, which it was. Reluctantly, he pushed himself up in the La-Z-Boy, peered out of the window at the now obviously drying tarmac, then said, “No, I don’t think it is,” and flopped back into the chair. “Kimi,” I said, “there’s a lot of F1 fans, us here included, who are really excited about you coming back and you do not want to be watching this show on Sunday night with that lap time, which I can’t tell you, but you really can do better.” I thought he was going to tell me to sod off, but eventually he smiled – well, arranged his lips slightly differently – and said “God, it’s worse than F1 here,” then got up, went outside and did some more laps. He could have gone faster than he eventually did because the track was drying all the time, but whatever. I can at least put on my gravestone: “I got Kimi Räikkönen to shift his arse.” The one F1 driver who didn’t do the lap was Michael Schumacher. Although he was in temporary retirement at that point, he clearly was not going to muck about with the myth surrounding the greatest statistical driver of all time. However, Jeremy and I had met him several times over the years and seen him grow from an uptight youth into one of the most amiable gentlemen in the pit lane. There isn’t the space here to recount the personal experiences I’ve had of his decency, or of similar stories I’ve heard from people I know, including my wife when she worked at Minardi. Bottom line, I admire that man immeasurably, and it was no surprise therefore that he agreed to out himself as The Stig when it was put to him. Michael’s day at the track kicked off in typical TopGear fashion. Since he was arriving in his private jet, flight plans had been logged, permissions to land obtained, and at 9.15am his pilot was lining up on the approach path, as arranged, when suddenly the control tower heard the voice of another pilot: “Erm, Foxtrot Alpha Papa Tango James May. Hello, receiving wilco over.” Yes, James was also lining up in his Sopwith Tiger Moth or whatever it is, which in turn meant Schumacher’s pilot had to suddenly make new plans. Once the seven-times world champion was finally on the ground, he got ready to do a lap in the Ferrari FXX. Now normally The Stig takes the F1 drivers around first, just to show them how the track goes, but Schumacher wouldn’t get in his car because it was a Jaguar and since he had an endorsement deal with Ferrari/
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Michael Schumacher: forget what you think you know about him, and realise that he’s truly special
Maserati he couldn’t be seen in any other brand. “No problem, you go around; I’ll follow you in my car,” Schumacher said to Ben Collins, our Stig at the time. And thus Ben filled up his gravestone epitaph as he barrelled round the track with Schumacher on his arse in an FXX. Michael then wanted to say hello to Jeremy, Richard and James. “I’ll go get them,” I said, knowing full well the state of the little scripting room they sat in. “No, it’s OK” said Michael, “I’ll go see them.” There is little doubt his temple of a body would have convulsed as he walked into the wall of ciggie smoke in the room. Then he perched on the bank-holiday-sale DFS sofa and had a good chat with the boys, even though his eyes kept being drawn to the collection of cock and balls illustrations on the wall. We told him that guests were sometimes invited to contribute one, but he politely declined the marker pen. What I do remember though is him saying that the first corner on our Heath Robinson circuit was “pretty interesting”, which is good enough for me. We then asked him to think of some answers to some daft questions in The Stig reveal interview, and if you never saw the moment he took The Stig helmet off, I urge you to watch it, because it’s the most electrifying studio moment in our whole history. Schumacher is alright. Better than alright. I still cannot believe a man of such talent, for whom mobility and speed is such a fundamental urge, sits now as a prisoner of his body, and I really hope that one day medicine provides the key to release him from his cell. Back, though, to the amateur drivers, and by the time we entered the Kia Cee’d era, we were pulling in the big names quite regularly. Ryan Reynolds – one of the top five funniest men you’ll ever meet; Mick Fleetwood – legend; Rowan Atkinson – deeply shy and a complete gentleman. Then one day we got the call that the man we’d often joked about, as in: “Oh yeah, you’ve got more chance of getting Tom Cruise on”, was actually up for coming on. What’s more, he would be with Cameron Diaz. Now having experienced the entourage nonsense that accompanies any normal Hollywood Alister, we expected the hoo-ha surrounding Tom and Cameron’s visit to be off the scale. And it was. A security team came to check out the track. Approximately 48,000 people would be coming from the film company. Then a couple of days before the visit, we were sent a timetable for how the day itself would run, and it wasn’t short on detail. Tom would arrive at 12.01. He would say hello to
Schuey refused to get in a Jag. Only Ferrari products for him...
The leader board. Object of scrutiny and envy...
“ WE EXPECTED THE HOO-HA OF TOM CRUISE’S VISIT TO BE OFF THE SCALE” Jeremy, Richard and James at 12.04. He would go into his motorhome at 12.07. He would reappear at 12.09 and get in the Kia Cee’d at 12.11, and so on and so on. All of this went to s**t at, I don’t know, let’s say 10.04, when we heard the thrum of rotor blades and Tom’s helicopter deposited him on the ground a full two hours early. He’d got up, decided he wanted to get down to the track, and the truth is, the fuss and nonsense that precedes the man is most definitely not the man. As for the timetable, he talked with everybody, goofed about and hardly went in his motorhome once, but what impressed me
most was how he handled the film company people. Basically, when he’d done his laps it was raining, but then the sun came out, the track dried, and he turned and said: “I’d really like to do my laps again. Do you think I can?” “You definitely should,” I said, “I can tell you’ll regret it if you don’t do a dry time. Trouble is, you’ve got 48,000 people standing right behind you who’ve got you on a really tight schedule because they need to get you to your film premiere in the West End.” Now at this point, he could have simply flexed his Biggest Star in the World muscles and declared that that was what he was going to do. But instead, he asked the film company people if it would be OK for him to go again, and when he saw the anxiety on their faces, he suggested they scrap the time they’d allotted for going to the hotel to shower and get dressed for the premiere. “I can change in the car on the way there,” he said. Genuinely, he was one of the nicest guests we’ve ever had at the track, as indeed was Cameron Diaz. I remember at one point telling her that Jeremy would be asking her how her nose looked so perfect, given that she’d broken it four times. “It’s not perfect, it’s terrible,” she said. “Well, it just isn’t – it’s perfect,” I retorted. She then took my hand and ran my finger up and down her nose. “Look, feel that,” she said. “It’s terrible.” To be honest, though, I wasn’t listening; I was too busy composing another epitaph for my gravestone. Reading back through what I’ve written, I know it comes across a bit like a Hello! feature because I have not been critical of any of our guests. But the truth is, out of all the stars we had in the cars, only one (and I’m not going to say who it is) was a knob. The rest were anything from perfectly pleasant to an absolute joy. I don’t know why that was. Maybe, as they sat in our terrible student bedsit of a green room with wonky pictures of previous celebs and a fridge that kept the drinks warm, they appreciated the lack of the usual TV nonsense. Perhaps it was the fact they could have a fag without being tutted at or simply that they could bomb around a track – or both of these things, in Michael Fassbender’s case. I think a lot enjoyed it, though, because they came down believing they would embarrass themselves at the wheel of a car but then, with a little help from The Stig, pushed themselves right out of their comfort zones and found themselves in a place they never expected to be, and actually really liked. I dunno. I’m just glad nobody got hurt – I honestly can’t remember if we ever bothered to take out any insurance.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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AVENTADOR SV
NIGHT RIDER We have just 24 hours with the Lambo Aventador LP 750-4 SV... so let’s drive the wheels off it WORDS: TOM FORD / PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK FAGELSON
upercars are pointless. This is a conclusion drawn from the slinky bulwark of a Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 Super Veloce that’s currently staring at the back of a tipper lorry that smells worryingly of bacon, schlepping forlornly along one of London’s viciously clogged arterial roads. I have around 740bhp from a glorious, naturally aspirated V12. When pushed, my paddleshift gearbox reacts in just 50 milliseconds. I have all-wheel-drive traction, air-bending downforce and a top speed of more than 217mph. And it is all, without question, completely gelded by insidious
S
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traffic planning and dubious roadworks. It’s like having a powerboat in a paddling pool. It’s not all a wasted opportunity, mind. There are some advantages. For instance, you can tell that the Lamborghini looks the part and is undoubtedly doing its job as a piece of ring-road theatre, entertainment in an otherwise mind-numbing slug of a journey. You can ascertain its visual appeal by the sheer number of people trying to video it while steering with their wrists, the two near misses and man who stoutly fell off his bicycle near Park Royal. It’s not hard to see why: in a time where surfacing is subtle and mature, colours muted and chosen for resale rather than preference, a bloody chunk of Lambo steak in a visually vegetarian world is something glorious.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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AVENTADOR SV
This is not a car created for traffic jams on the South Circular. This is a car created for night-time runs on the motorway. Oh yes
“ IT’S BRUTALLY QUICK, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. BUT IT’S ALSO SLIGHTLY ANGRY, AND A BIT INTIMIDATING” 12 6
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It’s probably worth having a proper stare, too. We have generous wingspan, metallic red bodywork littered with important-looking flashes of carbon fibre acting as boundaries to gaping intakes. Even the front splitter side vanes look suspiciously like fangs. There are four downturned central exhaust pipes like sad plumbing sticking out the back, and a finned rear diffuser that speaks the language of physics we can’t see. But I want more than a 10second phone video. I want to see if the latest, greatest Lamborghini is more than just a show pony, and, to do that, first I must endure the third-tier hell that is London’s South Circular. I have to deal with carbon-backed seats that sit you upright as a pious church pew – and give you backache in a bare 20 minutes – an ISR 7spd gearbox that slurs light changes in its comfiest mode with a lazy head-nod, and a truck-like width of well over two metres. The ride is supple but busy, probably because the rear tyres are basically horizontal, rubberised oil drums at a gloriously proportioned 335/25/21, and there’s a real tendency for the SV to hunt cambers and pinch at bumps. There’s little sound-deadening, and it gives you some of the sonar abilities of a common bat – you can hear the imperfections in the road, get an idea of the texture of the tarmac via your hearing as well as your bottom. The stats? Well, they’re not altogether as impressive as you might think. The Super Veloce isn’t that much more powerful than the standard Aventador – and roughly 50bhp up on the LP700-4 doesn’t sound like it’s going to be transformative. And although weight is down by 50kg, that’s mostly down to the loss of that sound deadening and the application of the torturous lightweight seats. The carbon monocoque remains, supported by an aluminium subframe at either end as before, but now there’s a carbon engine cover, rear spoiler and static carbon side scoops (weighty, electrically motivated items on the normal car), an aluminium bonnet, front bumper and doors and an SMC rear bumper. The complicated summation of the addition of extra power and subtraction of a smidgen of plumpness equate to a 10 per cent increase in
power-to-weight, all accessed at the top end of the rev range. Which isn’t much. But this is one of those tricky two-plus-two-equals-five moments: the sum of the parts definitely does not equal what you get. Because when I accelerate onto an open road and the traffic clears a bit, the 750-4 starts to show its teeth. And those teeth are wicked. Third and fourth gears get illegal very quickly. Apparently. There are seven gears, the last four of which, should you choose to deploy them fully, will scale perfectly with the length of prison sentence. It is, for all the basic Aventador foibles, still an astonishing car. There is nothing like the throttle response of an engine that relies on nothing more than atmospheric pressure to make fuel and air go bang. There’s no boost moment. There’s also no cam change or step in the shove, just a constant, big-engined accelerative weight right up to a howling 8,400rpm. This is a 6.5-litre V12 doing what it does best, and the SV-specific tweaks – changes to the variable valve timing, intake system and exhaust – allow it more freedom to express itself. That, and the 8,400rpm red line and new lightweight exhaust system. It’s brutally quick, no doubt. But it’s also slightly angry, and a bit intimidating. It’s a reminder of what old people call a ‘proper supercar’. I find an empty stretch of road and deploy a fast start. This was probably a mistake. It starts off cool and calm, with a few innocent button presses and a mischievous glint. Left foot on brake, right foot on the throttle, build the revs. Then flatten the right and remove the left. There’s a tense moment as the V12 growls, an endless millisecond of gathered pause, and then an accelerative punch in the diaphragm and an involuntary expression of mild panic. Time both stretches and becomes compressed, vision narrows, and fingerprints fuse indelibly to the Alcantara steering wheel. It doesn’t so much launch as explode. In fact, the initial three seconds – by which time you’ll be doing near the legal UK speed limit – causes a kind of cognitive whiplash. A mental buffering that means your brain has to spin a little egg-timer and do some glacially slow organic thinking just to put the experiences into some sort of order, so that you might understand what the bloody
Night in the Aventador SV – the only time it looks subtle
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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AVENTADOR SV
Blockbusters graphics on the rev counter. Supremely cool
LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR SV Price: £350,000 approx Engine: 6498cc naturally aspirated flat V12, 740bhp @ 8400rpm, 507lb ft @ 5500rpm, Performance: 0–62mph in 2.8secs, 217mph+ Transmission: 7spd ISR, 4WD Economy: 17.7mpg, 370g/km CO2 Dry weight: 1525kg
SV has a naturally aspirated V12 and is proud of it
“ IT MAKES THE KIND OF NOISE THAT MAKES LIVESTOCK SCATTER” 12 8
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hell just happened. Just enough time to think, quite clearly: “This is how a golf ball feels.” This isn’t seamless, electrical thrust like a Tesla P85D, or the even-tempered, shaped charge of a Porsche 918. This is a good ol’ fashioned cannonshot, full of noise and drama and a strange keening that apparently I make when scared. You are assailed by accelerative g, mauled by V12 scream. Suddenly the steering wheel becomes vitally important, and the car skitters and thumps, pulsing torque between the axles to give the best possible grip. It’s brutal, and old-school effective. Essentially it’s a stylish sledgehammer with seats. And the noise. It makes the kind of noise that makes the hairs on the back of your neck flip vertical, and livestock scatter. It is, with appropriate capitalisation: An Experience.
But this is also one of those cars that’s actually very tiring. My back is basically ruined after 10 hours in the seat, and as the light fades, I get bored with negotiating traffic, people and things, and the light sheen of fear that comes with trying to drive it quickly without buttering it up a tree, and decide to call it a night. Ten minutes later, I’m back in the car thumbing the starter button. I’ve only got 24 hours with it. So it’s time to keep driving. All night if needs be. It takes many hours. This is not a car you get quickly comfortable with, intellectually or physically, at all. But the more I drive the SV, the more it reveals itself. It’s a strange one, this. The gearbox manages to be both better sorted than the Aventador, and still not as good as proper modern DSG paddleshifts. It’s a bit
of an oddity, having as it does one clutch but two shifting rods (like a one-handed DSG), and just a bit rough. It thumps and huffs, sometimes fluffing changes in traffic, and will grab a gear with a real bang at mid to heavy throttle openings. Drive it with a bit of sympathy and you can smooth it out, but you have to drive around it, until you realise that at full throttle, at the top of the red line in Corsa mode, shifts are almost seamless. Which tells you pretty much all you need to know about what Lamborghini was expecting from this car. The way it rides is also a tad counterintuitive. The racecar-spec pushrod suspension is now magnetorheological and adaptive, which means that the springs are only a little bit stiffer than standard, but the ride is actually more supple on a typical road.
I’d go so far as to say that (as with a few of these more focused semi-specials) the more expensive damping and springing actually make the hardcore car ride better than standard – especially on our weatherbeaten UK B-roads. But that’s not to say it’s not restless, or soothing. The trade-off for such pointiness is that there’s a good portion more feel than the standard LP700-4, and the whole car feels more lively, more together, and yes, when you push on, quite a bit more nervous than non-Veloce. There are the usual three modes consisting of Strada (road), Sport (uh... Sport) and Corsa (Race) available from the switchgear on the centre console, and they now gently fiddle the ’box, engine response, suspension, AWD bias and steering. There’s a mechanical locking diff out back and an electronic
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AVENTADOR SV
24 hours with the SV. You’d just drive, wouldn’t you?
“ THE SV HAS, AS YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED, QUITE A LOT OF AERO”
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Big rev counter totally dominates the instruments
pseudo-diff provided by the ESP system on the front. And the electric twiddling modifies the character of the SV to a decent and noticeable degree. The dynamic steering has a variable-ratio rack that changes constantly, and again, you have to get used to it, but when going quickly, it calms down and is actually pretty good. Just don’t be too forceful with it, or the SV dives headfirst into corners, feeling like it’s swinging its bottom – and engine – in behind. Other than that, grip is predictably enormous, and Corsa mode will let the tail step out a little – which is enough for UK roads. You’d have to be very confident or have a lot of space to play with ESP totally off. Preferably somewhere the size of Yorkshire, for complete security. And yes, we’re talking mechanical grip. The SV has, as you may have noticed, quite a lot of aero, but I’m unconvinced about the downforce unicorn – something that lots of people believe in, but can’t see. There are charts and graphs that prove that the various splitters and spoilers work (170 per cent more than a standard LP 700-4 and 150 per cent more efficiency) and that rear wing is manually adjustable and offers three angles of attack: choose between 186, 202 or 218kg of downforce at a speed you’ll never actually achieve. In 99 per cent of situations you can’t use it, you can’t see it when you do. In most cars equipped with it, you have to be doing somewhere in the region of one hundred and fifty miles per hour, and even then you have to be qualified enough to realise that it’s working. You might as well tell me that at 150mph the car turns into the Millennium Falcon and shoots kittens from the exhausts. Now, if they can invent downforce that works sub 100-ish mph, I might have some chance of understanding what all the fuss is about, but honestly? On a UK road, the physical manifestation of SV
downforce is only useful as a handy table, and provides some shade in summer. The truth is that the Aventador SV is the froth on the cappuccino of an anachronism. The standard Aventador already lives in a slightly fragile, old-school niche – attractive though it is – of V12, mid-engined natural aspiration. Its ISR paddle ’box isn’t by any means cutting edge, and it certainly hasn’t got any KERS-analogue electrical filler. Yes, there’s AWD, but it’s Haldex gen IV (a Golf R is already on the fifth generation of the system) not the torque-vectoring magicianship of something like a Nissan GT-R’s ATTESA, and the traction control doesn’t have the ego-friendly fluency of Ferrari’s Side Slip Control that can make even the most ham-fisted heroic. To then add ‘lightness’ to the tune of 50kg – which isn’t actually that much – up the power to around 740bhp when the standard car wasn’t exactly wet, and add some weight back in with extra wings, is not so much gilding the lily as fluoro-wrapping it and serving it on a bed of freshly cut overkill. I want to dislike the SV. Because it’s daft, and uncomfortable, and a bit uncouth, both visually and to drive. But I can’t. It’s not new age, or next generation, not filled with tech tricks and the newest of fangles. It’s an Aventador wound up to a bit past 11, for those people who just like a little bit more. For £350k it’s a proper challenge to drive quickly, and you’re probably looking at another couple of hundred grand to get close to beating it. And it is pointless. But it’s the kind of pointless that makes you get up early in the morning, the kind of pointless that makes people crash their bicycles. It’s the kind of pointless that makes you drive all night, a car that you never step out of without an opinion. And that’s the kind of pointless that dreams are made of.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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McLAREN 675LT
WORDS: JASON BARLOW / PHOTOGRAPHY: LEE BRIMBLE
FASTER
LONGER.
LIGHTER...
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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McLAREN 675LT
...MEGA!
Meet the 675LT, arguably the best McLaren road car since the F1.But there’s a slight problem: even if you have a spare £260k, you still can’t buy one...
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ationality has haunted McLaren’s v2.0 adventure since it was kickstarted in 2009. Science isn’t on my mind right now, although it’s undoubtedly the reason I haven’t just punched a £259,500 hole in a hedge. No, what’s on my mind equates roughly to “Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh!” Most unscientific. Why? Because the McLaren 675LT throws you down the road with such force it’s what you imagine bungee jumping off the back of the Space Shuttle must feel like. And ‘feel’ is the word. A lot of modern supercars have such high limits that it’s difficult to get close to them without being superhuman or going toe to toe with the Grim Reaper. Most of us will tacitly admit that, say, a Golf R is more effective than a Koenigsegg on a tricky B-road. Not as memorable, but more effective. The 675LT would be just great, though. In fact, the biggest problem would be working out which bit of the equation is the most stimulating – the immense power, the way the car transfers it to the road, or maybe even how it loses it all in what seems like a heartbeat. The 675LT throws so much
information at you it’s difficult to process it in real time. One thought takes hold, though: this might be the best McLaren road car since the original F1, 22 years ago. The official McLaren line is different, of course, but still illuminating. It says the 675LT represents a bigger jump from the 650S than that car was over the 12C. There’s more. CEO Mike Flewitt sums it up thusly: “The 675LT is the closest thing there is to a McLaren P1. Alongside [that car], it’s the most extreme expression yet of McLaren road car engineering.” Suddenly, £260k doesn’t seem quite so steep… To be reductive about it, the 675LT – it stands for Long Tail, a tribute to McLaren’s elongated 1997 endurance racer – is the company’s answer to the Ferrari 458 Speciale, a lightweight, more powerful, track-focused limited series car, dripping with aerodynamic know-how and aimed at the hedonist. It’ll rip to 62mph in 2.9secs, 124mph in a barely believable 7.9secs, and thunder on up to 205mph. It weighs 1,320kg – 100 less than the 650S – meaning a 542bhp-per-tonne power-to-weight ratio. “We had some people to beat, back in the day,” McLaren Automotive’s chief test driver Chris Goodwin says, pointing to the stillextraordinary-looking Nineties F1 LT
behind us, “so the policy was to change a little bit of the car everywhere. The 650S is our core car, but to achieve the 675LT we changed a little bit of everything.” Quite a lot of everything, actually. A third of the car is new, and the reworking suggests that though McLaren has exorcised the ghost of over-rationality, function still prevails over form. The aero detail really is immense for a road car. The front bumper has a bigger splitter and new end plates, the underbody is new, the side skirts are reprofiled, the side air intakes are new, the rear wings are different, the rear screen is polycarbonate and the airbrake is 50 per cent bigger and more effective. The dirty air around the front wheel arches is “cleaned” as it’s channelled towards the rear of the car by the side skirts (made of carbon fibre, by the way, as is most of the LT). The second side intake funnels cooling air into the radiators; they’re the same size as the ones on the 650S, but the angle has been increased from 15 to 19 degrees for greater efficiency. The LT’s front and rear track have been widened by 20mm, to improve grip, turn-in and agility, and the ride height at the front has been reduced by the same amount, so that it cleaves the air at a more rakish angle.
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AIR TIME
AERO FORCE
LT generates 40 per cent more downforce than 650S, which is no slouch itself. Front end gets a CF splitter, 80 per cent larger than on the regular car, and F1-style end plates. Along with a 20mm increase in front and rear track and increased rake angle, these mods sharpen turn-in and steering feel. They also benefit overall aero efficiency and cooling
LIGHTNESS OF BEING
675LT is all new from the B-pillar back. As well as using lots of carbon, its 100kg weight saving over 650S has been achieved by using lightweight engine, chassis and structural components. The windscreen is 1mm thinner, saving 3kg, and the bulkhead glass is 0.5mm thinner, saving 0.5kg. Order the carbon bits in satin not gloss, and you save another 50g…
Turbulent air around the front wheel arches is ‘cleaned’ by the carbon side skirts as it passes along the car. LT features a new, second air intake ahead of the rear wheelarch, which feeds cooling air to the radiators, whose angle has been increased to improve efficiency. Engine is twin-turbo 3.8-litre, now producing 666bhp, and half of its components are new
1.5 INCHES LONGER
McLAREN 675LT
BRAKING NEWS
Longtail active air brake is 50 per cent larger than standard and has been redesigned to blend more seamlessly into the new rear wings. It deploys when the car senses a demand for extra downforce, but lowers when the car is accelerating hard in a straight line. Exhaust system has a new enlarged crossover muffler. Exhaust is made of titanium, glows blue when hot
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CARBON-BASED
LT obviously uses McLaren’s carbon Monocell, which weighs just 75kg and is 25 per cent stiffer than the equivalent ally tub. LT gains modifed front and rear subframes in order to accommodate the wishbones and uprights that are derived from the P1’s suspension. Car can also be ordered in Club Sport form, which adds a titanium roll cage weighing just 4.4kg
Price: £259,500 Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V8 666bhp @ 7100rpm, 516lb ft @ 5500–6500rpm Performance: 0–62mph in 2.9 seconds, 205mph vmax Economy: 24.2mpg, 275g/km CO2
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SEPTEMBER 2015
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McLAREN 675LT
“ITS PERFORMANCE PUTS IT IN THE SUPERCAR STRATOSPHERE, AS REALWORLD FAST AS THE HYBRID HYPERCARS”
Slide slip angles are pretty acute. Careful, Grasshopper, careful
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Much carbon fibre means a weight reduction of 100kg
The weakest component will be what occupies the bucket seats TOPGEARME.COM
This in turn gets rid of the air at the back of the car more efficiently, and makes the rear diffuser work harder. All this aero moves the centre of pressure forwards, resulting in superior downforce – 40 per cent more overall than the 650 generates. “In isolation it’s all just points on a graph,” admits Goodwin, “but on every corner around Silverstone, believe me, you really will feel the difference.” Not just on the circuit. After a 45-minute immersion on the roads near the track, it’s difficult to think of a more focused or intense road car than this. Sure, a beardy purist might grumble about the McLaren’s reliance on forced induction, and though it definitely sounds more guttural than the 650S, and crackles and pops malevolently on the overrun, it’s still shy of the 458 Speciale’s aural thunder (it would be interesting to measure its noise levels alongside the new 488 GTB, though). But only the most tedious die-hard could find fault with 666bhp (at 7,100rpm) and/or 516 torques (between 5,500rpm and 6,500rpm). The 3.8-litre twin-turbo now has lighter con rods and camshafts, a machined-from-solid (not cast) compressor wheel and a reprofiled titanium exhaust that’s 30cm larger and a lot more tuneful while being 1kg lighter than the standard one. In fact, half of the engine’s components are new. The result is a monumentally fast car. Almost other-worldly. The 675LT’s performance puts it in the supercar stratosphere, as real-world fast as the current hybrid hypercar superstars, and thus the sort of thing that demands maximum respect from the driver, not to mention Olympian levels of selfcontrol. You will almost always be travelling faster than you think, so mental recalibration is in order. Fortunately, speed is only part of the McLaren’s matrix. A faster rack means that the steering is sublime and the linearity of its major control responses utterly superb. The brakes are unchanged, but have perfect feel. Like the 650S, the LT uses McLaren’s ProActive Chassis Control (hydraulically interconnected dampers) and Brake Steer, but the Normal, Sport and Track settings have all been reworked to deliver edgier responses. The suspension features new, lighter springs allround, and the LT is 27 per cent stiffer at the front, 60 per cent stiffer at the rear. The uprights and wishbones are derived, says McLaren, from the P1. The 675LT also benefits from bespoke Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R rubber – 235/35 R19s at the front, 305/30 R20s at the rear – which offer six per cent more grip than the regular ones, while the forged alloys are even lighter than the P1’s. The result is a car that attacks corners insatiably, relaying every morsel of information into the palms of your hands, while remaining astonishingly composed over sudden crests, surface imperfections or camber changes. Its transmission is equally mighty. It’s eye-blink fast whatever the setting, but in Track mode, with more than 5,000rpm dialled up and 60 per cent throttle, McLaren’s Inertia Push tech delivers what it calls an “impulse of torque” as the next gear is engaged. Shift times are just 40ms, but the key thing here is that the driver isn’t left in the cold. It’s like being invited into the heart of a chemical reaction, and the result is the world’s finest dual-clutch ’box. Crucially, though, it’s perfectly usable despite its huge performance. The 675LT has a low cowl, and the
Double-clutch ’box offers up shift times of just 40ms
Track work is all well and good, but you need to get it out on the road
driving position is pretty much perfect. It’s also relatively compact, so you’re not fidgeting nervously against the white lines or hedges, or slowing to a crawl as you meet an oncoming lorry. Fast driving is all about matching speed with vision; the 675LT has an abundance of both, and better manners all round than the amusing but unruly Honda Civic Type R. Goodwin reckons Sport mode – the midway point in terms of damping and powertrain severity – will be most owners’ default setting. “Of all the cars we make, the 675LT is probably the one with the broadest overall capability. That’s why it’s so important to experience it on the road, as well as the track. Getting a car to turn in beautifully is one thing; ensuring the rest of it follows properly is another.” Nothing is perfect, however, and the 675LT does have issues. The first is that it costs £259,500 before you add niceties – carbon exterior pack (£7,890), track telemetry camera (£3,400) or maybe the Meridian 10-speaker audio upgrade (£3,150). That’s a mountain of money, but brings us to the second, insurmountable problem – all 500 have been sold.
McLaren reckons a fair percentage of these will see regular track use, in which case their owners will need to respect this car’s skyscraping potential. Sport mode gives you more latitude to play, and in Track mode and with the ESC switched off, things get very interesting indeed – the slip angles are actually pretty narrow, and you need to be on the ball. The current supercar breed has such software complexity and so many algorithms so deeply integrated into the car’s ‘mainframe’ that doing without them is an increasingly risky enterprise. Not to mention slower. The original F1, as per Gordon Murray’s uncompromising vision, was famously ‘unplugged’ – no ABS, no servo, no power steering, and only your right foot and reflexes for traction control. You couldn’t get away with that now, but in many ways the 675LT channels some of its predecessor’s singular character, raw edges included. The LT will mind its own business if you want it to, but knowing what it’s capable of is arguably the biggest buzz of all. This is a brilliant, brilliant car.
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TOPGEAR MIDDLE EAST’S LONG-TERM CAR. TESTED AND VERIFIED
TEST OF THE MONTH
D A P i R U O Y N O OOF F Y. U A R D D O A T O E L U N S W S I O D IEW V E R P E E R F A AND HAVE
VOLKSWAGEN JETTA Does America’s Favorite Not-Golf Fit Our Gulf? TURN OVER
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racticality was once considered a cornerstone of American values— but I’m not sure that’s still the case. Image, on the other hand, has always been a particularly Yankassociated obsession, and I think it’s fair to say that the Golf, and all hatches hot or otherwise, simply holds too much junk in its trunk to appeal broadly to Americans. In fact, the Jetta ranks as one of Volkswagen’s top selling vehicles, outstripping the Golf by a wide margin. But could it catch on in Dubai, very much still Golf territory? Fact, is there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Jetta— it’s chief sin, in some circles, is simply not being a Golf. I mean, it is a Golf more or less, it just doesn’t hold as much kit when you make the inevitable Ikea run. That’s a fair point, but I’d counter that in order to use all of the extra storage capacity afforded by the Golf, you essentially lose a huge amount of rear visibility. So, you know… better spring for the back up camera. Anyway, instead of writing the Jetta off as a lesser Golf iteration, I would suggest that you simply view it as a very similar vehicle that caters to those of us who (no judgments) are extremely uninterested in hatchbacks.
P
REPORT 1: VOLKSWAGWEN JETTA
The Not Hatch
4-1.4L TSI, 7-speed DSG, 250Nm @ 1500-3500 rpm 45mpg (combined) 148g CO2/km 0–100kph in 9.6 secs, 200kph 1403kg AED73000 Start mileage 2,340 km Driver Sid Saigal Why it’s here? This smaller saloon has two things we like, torque and personality in a more than decent package
IN DETAIL
But the lack of a hatch isn’t what strikes me about the Jetta in particular— it’s the torque. I’m not saying the Jetta has the explosive torque of its sportier cousin, the Porsche 911, but when you open the throttle the car pulls at you nicely off the line, which is not something I can say of all competitors in the segment. The 1.4L TSI engine outputs 250 Nm of peak torque between 1500-3500 rpm, allowing the car a quite capable demeanor. There are plenty of sportier rides in the VW (not to mention Audi) stable, but the Jetta is a remarkably satisfying car to drive, partly because it lacks the CVT transmission that estranges so many driving enthusiasts from the competition. Instead, the Jetta boasts Volkswagen’s 7-speed DSG gearbox affording the car a nice marriage of performance and efficiency. Drop the lever into Sport mode and the shift points (should you use them, this mode allows for quasi-manual operation) allow you to hold each gear right up to redline. It sounds about a thousand times better than any CVT, but I’m not sure the car’s torque curve is particularly suited for such an aggressive approach. The Jetta takes 9.6 seconds to reach 100kph, and it’s almost surprising that it’s that long. It’s not that 9.6 seconds
is an eternity, but somehow the car seems almost faster than it is. Perhaps it’s the power of suggestion: VW is very adept at carving out their own aesthetic niche and the Jetta’s more premium feeling interiors, with soft touch plastics, and signature design DNA do add to the car’s allure. The bad news for VW is that a lot of manufacturers have finally been catching up on the style front. Good news for consumers though. The Jetta has very balanced steering that holds true to center, and then responds deftly to driver input. The brakes have a helpful amount of grab but don’t overreach. Also, you don’t find yourself reaching for them much outside of traffic— the car is happy to hold a line and carries momentum well through turns where other affordable saloons might get a bit skittish. For 2015 the Jetta’s front end is honed for aerodynamic improvements that, along with changes to the rear, a new bumper, optimized rain gutters on the sides near the A-pillars, and sundry other changes; culminate in 10 percent less drag. All that
MILEAGE AND MPG THIS MONTH
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“The car is happy to hold a line and carries momentum well through turns where other affordable saloons might get a bit skittish.”
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“Instead of writing the Jetta off as a lesser Golf iteration, I would suggest that you simply view it as a very similar vehicle that caters to those of us who (no judgments) are extremely uninterested in hatchbacks.”
sculpting helps account for the fuel efficiency improvements on offer for 2015. The radiator grille is revised too, and the LED daytime running lights help to make the car easily recognizable from afar. There’s also a larger lower air inlet, which has the effect of making the car seem a little broader than it actually is, which is probably good in this segment. Further changes to the underbody panels at the rear axle and sill covers with wheel spoilers round out the exterior updates, but they’re a bit hard to notice. The new Jetta isn’t all that new, and it isn’t hugely different from the hugely popular (in Europe) Golf. That’s not a problem; it’s a fair question writ large in steel, rubber and alumimium. Which VW is right for you? Go drive both and let us know, we’re quite keen on Jetta and Golf. Having driven both extensively in Dubai on local test, I still feel like a Golf man at heart. That said, perhaps another week with the Jetta will sway me?
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